Hong Kong’s Ka Yi Lee Claims Only Upset On Day One As The South Western Women’s Open Gets Underway In Houston

Hong Kong’s Ka Yi Lee claimed the only upset on day one at the inaugural South Western Women’s Open as seven other players made their way through to round two at the PSA Gold event in Houston, USA.

Yi Lee defeated compatriot and 9/16 seed Tomato Ho in an entertaining five-game battle to secure her place in the second round. The World No.44 is ranked nine places higher than her opponent and trailed 2-1 before finding the front two corners with great accuracy to take the next two games 11-5, 11-6 to progress. She will face a tough test tomorrow as she comes up against No.1 seed and World No.1 Nouran Gohar for a place in the final eight.

American duo Olivia Clyne and Sabrina Sobhy safely made their way through to round two in the event after beating Finland’s Emilia Soini and Latvia’s Ineta Mackevica respectively. Clyne wasted no time as she stormed to victory in just 21 minutes. Her changes of pace and angles proved to be too much for Mackevica who struggled to find the accuracy to trouble the American World No.21. Sobhy was in fine form in the opening match of her season and despite losing the third game, she returned to her accurate and fast-paced game to close the fourth game out 11-1. 

“It’s always nerve-racking, the first match of any PSA and the first of the season especially, you feel a little off because you haven’t done it in a few months,” said Sobhy after her win.

“She was attacking a little bit more and I felt like I lost my length. The court is a little tricky but once you get into the match it can be quite quick. She is a tricky player and has a lot of good short shots and flicks, so she had me on a lot of those and the nerves started to pile up and my accuracy left me. But I was happy to get stuck into it in the fourth and win.”

World No.29 Jasmine Hutton won an all-English encounter against Lucy Beecroft to book her second-round place. The match was a repeat of this year’s British National Championships final which was also won by Hutton. The match oozed quality from the outset with both players utilising all four corners of the court at different paces. 

With the score level at 1-1, it was Hutton who found the better length of the two and used that to set up several attacking opportunities, which she took full advantage of. Hutton took the third and fourth games both 11-6 to take the match. Another English opponent awaits Hutton in the next round, in the form of Commonwealth Gold medalist and No.4 seed Georgina Kennedy.

“I’m very happy to start my season with a win,” said Hutton.

“It’s different tactics against Gina [Kennedy], you know it’s going to be really physical. Against Lucy, you know you will be retrieving a lot because she attacks a lot and with Gina, it will be more rhythmical with longer rallies but I’m just looking forward to going for it.”

Round one also saw three Egyptian winners as Sana Ibrahim, Mariam Metwally and Hana Ramadan all scored victories to earn a second round place. Ibrahim and Ramadan needed just three games to overcome compatriots Nour Aboulmakarim and Fayrouz Aboelkheir to move into the last 16. Whereas Metwally had to battle hard to defeat Canada’s Nicole Bunyan in a five-game thriller to set up an all-Egyptian clash with No.3 seed Rowan Elaraby.

The action continues from the South Western Women’s Open tomorrow as the four top half matches take place and will be shown live on SQUASHTV from 16:30 (GMT-5).

For more information on the tournament, visit the PSA World Tour’s website or follow the PSA World Tour on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Results – Round one: South Western Women’s Open

Ka Yi Lee (HKG) bt Tomato Ho (HKG) 3-2: 11-7, 7-11, 2-11, 11-5, 11-6 (46m)

Sabrina Sobhy (USA) bt Emilia Soini (FIN) 3-1: 11-3, 11-6, 11-13, 11-1 (35m)

Sana Ibrahim (EGY) bt Nour Aboulmakarim (EGY) 3-0: 11-4, 11-8, 11-3 (28m)

Mariam Metwally (EGY) bt Nicole Bunyan (CAN) 3-2: 11-4, 8-11, 11-9, 5-11, 11-8 (57m)

Jasmine Hutton (ENG) bt Lucy Beecroft (ENG) 3-1: 11-9, 9-11, 11-6, 11-6 (45m)

Olivia Clyne (USA) bt Ineta Mackevica (LAT) 3-0: 11-8, 11-3, 11-4 (21m)

Hana Ramadan (EGY) bt [WC] Fayrouz Aboelkheir (EGY) 3-0: 11-6, 11-3, 11-8 (33m)

South Western Women’s Open Draw: Round Two (top half) – To be played September 7

[1] Nouran Gohar (EGY) v Ka Yi Lee (HKG)

[9/16] Sabrina Sobhy (USA) v [6] Olivia Fiechter (USA)

[8] Emily Whitlock (WAL) v [9/16] Sana Ibrahim (EGY)

[9/16] Mariam Metwally (EGY) v [3] Rowan Elaraby (EGY)

South Western Women’s Open Draw: Round Two (bottom half) – To be played September 8

[4] Georgina Kennedy (ENG) [Bye] v [9/16] Jasmine Hutton (ENG) 

[9/16] Olivia Clyne (USA) v [7] Nour El Tayeb (EGY)

[5] Salma Hany (EGY) v [9/16] Nadine Shahin (EGY)

[9/16] Hana Ramadan (EGY) v [2] Amanda Sobhy (USA)