The Tuanku Muhriz Trophy Day 1: Lee Fights Back to Beat Tamer After Azman Joins Sisters in RD2

Wildcard Duncan Lee fought back from 2-0 down to beat Egyptian left-hander Seif Tamer on day one of The Tuanku Muhriz Trophy. 

Tamer is ranked almost 100 places higher than the Malaysian in the world, but there was little to split the players across the first two games, which both went to tiebreaks. 

It was the tall Egyptian who came out on top on both occasions, though, leaving him one game from a place in round two. 

But backed by the home crowd, Lee turned the tide in his favour, winning game three 11-7 and then dominating the fourth for the loss of just three points. 

Going into game five, momentum was well and truly with the home favourite, and he carried that momentum through to victory, taking the decider 11-7 to set up a second-round clash with fourth seed Abhay Singh.

Lee wasn’t the only Malaysian player to win in five on day one, with Aika Azman beating Erisa Sano Herring to join her two sisters in round two. 

Aifa and Aira Azman are the No.1 and No.2 seeds respectively for this event, while their older sister Aika was given a wildcard spot. 

Her first-round opponent was Japan’s Erisa Sano Herring, who is currently sitting at a career-high ranking of No.115 in the world, but it was Azman – a former World No.80 – who took game one 11-6. 

Herring responded by winning the second 11-9 and then clinched the third on a tiebreak, only for Azman to force a decider by edging the fourth 11-9. 

Crucially, she then made a fast start in game five and didn’t look back, dropping just three points in the game to reach round two. 

There, she will face fellow Malaysian Yasshmita Jadish Kumar, knowing that a win could set up a quarter-final clash with her sister Aifa, who will play another wildcard, Harleein Tan, in the same quarter of the draw. 

Elsewhere, there was a dominant win for Nasir Iqbal over compatriot Tayyab Aslam in an all-Pakistani clash, while Japan’s Tomotaka Endo came out on top of a five-game tussle with Bryan Lim. 

Round two gets under way at 12pm local time on Thursday, August 29, streaming live on the PSNS Squash YouTube channel.