The Hague Open: Seeds Sail Into Semi-finals

All top four seeds confidently booked their places in the semi-finals of The Hague Open yesterday as just one of the seeds dropped a game in their quarter final matches.

That player who dropped a game was No.2 seed Owain Taylor as he took on Ireland’s Sean Conroy. Wales’ Taylor showed his confidence in the opening two games as he took them both 11-6 to lead 2-0 and place one foot in the next round. Conroy managed to claw a game back however to throw some doubt into the occasion but Taylor responded well in game four to win 11-8 ton reach the final four.

Taylor’s opponent will be Egypt’s Mohamed Nasser, who won the all-Egyptian clash against Omar Elkattan. After a convincing first game, Nasser continued to dominate and took the match in 40 minutes.

The top half semi-final will be contested between top seed Mahesh Mangaonkar and Joeri Hapers. Mangaonkar overcame surprise quarter finalist Lewis Doughty in 30 minutes, restricting the Englishman to just eight points across all three games of the match.

Hapers was in a similar ruthless mood as he overcame New Zealand’s Anthony Lepper 11-6, 11-2, 11-2 to move into the semi-finals.

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Results: Quarter finals
[1] Mahesh Mangaonkar (IND) bt [9/16] Lewis Doughty (ENG) 11-2, 11-5, 11-1 (30m)
[4] Joeri Hapers (BEL) bt [6] Anthony Lepper (NZL) 11-6, 11-2, 11-2 (35m)
[3] Mohamed Nasser (EGY) bt [9/16] Omar Elkattan (EGY) 11-4, 11-7, 11-7 (40m)
[2] Owain Taylor (WAL) bt [7] Sean Conroy (IRL) 11-6, 11-6, 8-11, 11-8 (69m)

Draw: Semi-finals
[1] Mahesh Mangaonkar (IND) v [4] Joeri Hapers (BEL)
[2] Owain Taylor (WAL) v [3] Mohamed Nasser (EGY)