Gas City Open: Mustonen Beats Marrison to End Home Hopes

Home interest came to an end at the Gas City Open, as the three remaining Canadian players went out in round two. 

Four Canadians lost out in round one, leaving just Liam Marrison, Jayden Shortt and Elliott Hunt in the draw, but all three fell on day two. 

Both Shortt and Hunt had won on day one and were playing higher-ranked opponents, with Shortt losing 3-0 to No.1 seed Brice Nicolas in just 21 minutes, and Hunt going down 3-1 to No.7 seed Manuel Paquemar. 

Marrison, meanwhile, was the No.3 seed and was facing a player ranked almost 150 places below him in the rankings, in Finland’s Henrik Mustonen. 

Mustonen is, however, a former top-40 player in the world, and gave a timely reminder of his talents with a 13-11, 11-6, 4-11, 12-10 victory. 

Those matches were all part of a busy day, which included the quarter-finals as well round two, and Mustonen followed up his win over Marrison with another victory, this time beating No.6 seed Paul Gonzalez of France. 

He will now play Nicolas on the semi-finals, after the Frenchman saw off the USA’s Salim Khan in his quarter-final matchup. 

No.2 seed Kareem El Torkey also won both of his matches on day two, keeping alive the possibility of a rematch of last week’s Lethbridge ProAm final against Nicolas. 

To get there, El Torkey will have to beat Robin Gadola once again, after beating him in the semi-finals of that event in Lethbridge last week. 

You can see all the results from the Gas City Open here.