Seeds Sail Through in First Qualifying Round of Carol Weymuller Open

The opening day of qualification at the 2016 Carol Weymuller Open, PSA W50 tournament saw all eight seeded players move through to the final qualifying round at the Heights Casino in Brooklyn, United States.

Top qualifying seed Nicolette Fernandes earned her place in the next round courtesy of a straight games victory over Australia’s Christine Nunn.

Fernandes, the World No.26 from Guyana, played with energy and precision and controlled the ‘T’ to come through 11-8, 11-4, 11-6 to set up a final qualifying round meeting with Egypt’s Kanzy Emad El Defrawy – against whom she lost to during the U.S. Open a fortnight ago.

“I feel good, it’s nice to get a win.” said Fernandes.

“These days the wins aren’t coming as regularly as I’d hoped, so I’m thrilled. I like it here and it’s very hot, so that helps. I played Kanzy at the US Open last week and I lost, so I’m really happy to play her again and, who knows, I might get another win.”

Welsh World No.27 Tesni Evans will join Fernandes and El Defrawy in the next round after she rose to a routine win against France’s Chloe Mesic. Evans, who celebrated her 24th birthday just three days earlier, took a decisive win in just 23 minutes to set up a clash with Egypt’s Salma Hany Ibrahim, a year on from Ibrahim’s stunning upset of World No.2 Laura Massaro in the opening round of the 2015 instalment.

“I was hitting a good length and it was giving me quite a lot up the front [of the court],” Evans explained.

“Chloe has improved a lot since last time I played her. She was trying to take it early and be high up the court.

“It’s going to be a tough match tomorrow. I played Salma about a month ago and I won, but it was close.”

United States No.2 Olivia Blatchford and fourth seed Mariam Metwally are also into the final round of qualifying thanks to wins over Canada’s Samantha Cornett and England’s Jessica Davies, respectively – with the former fixture going all the way to a climactic fifth-game decider.

Blatchford will line up against World No.39 Millie Tomlinson for a place in the main draw, while Metwally will go head-to-head with the experienced Samantha Teran.

Results – First Qualifying Round: Carol Weymuller Open 2016
[1] Nicolette Fernandes (GUY) bt Christine Nunn (AUS) 3-0: 11-8, 11-4, 11-6
[7] Kanzy Emad El Defrawy (EGY) bt [L] Maria Toorpakai Wazir (PAK) 3-0: 11-8, 11-5, 11-6
[5] Samantha Teran (MEX) bt [L] Emilia Soini (FIN) 3-0: 11-3, 11-8, 11-5
[4] Mariam Metwally (EGY) bt [L] Jessica Davis (ENG) 3-0: 11-7, 11-4, 11-3
[3] Olivia Blatchford (USA) bt Samantha Cornett (CAN) 3-2: 11-5, 7-11, 8-11, 11-5, 12-10
[8] Millie Tomlinson (ENG) bt [L] Colette Sultana (MLT) 3-0: 11-2, 11-3, 11-5
[6] Salma Hany Ibrahim (EGY) bt Nouran El Torky (EGY) 3-1: 12-14, 11-6, 11-5, 15-13
[2] Tesni Evans (WAL) bt Chloe Mesic (FRA) 3-0: 11-4, 11-3, 11-7

Watch Live action from the final qualifying round of the Carol Weymuller Open below

Draw – Final Qualifying Round
(All times are local GMT-4)
13:30 [5] Samantha Teran (MEX) v [4] Mariam Metwally (EGY)
16:00 [1] Nicolette Fernandes (GUY) v [7] Kanzy Emad El Defrawy (EGY)
17:30 [6] Salma Hany Ibrahim (EGY) v [2] Tesni Evans (WAL)
16:45 [3] Olivia Blatchford (USA) v [8] Millie Tomlinson (ENG)