Inno Wood Open Qualifying Kicks Off

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Top qualifying seed Daniel Mekbib surged past Lukas Burkhart in the opening qualifying round of the Inno Wood Open, PSA M5 tournament with a commanding straight games triumph.

The Czech World No.212 was appearing at only his second PSA World Tour event of the year but showed no signs of rustiness as he sailed to an 11-3, 11-4, 11-7 victory to put himself within one win of a main draw spot.

“I’m happy with the way I played,” said Mekbib.

“I’ve know Lukas for a long time, since we were juniors. We played a lot of long matches before so I had to play my best from the beginning. My legs feel much better than last week [at the Sekisui Open] so I am looking forward to my next match.”

Mekbib will do battle with Luca Wilhelmi for a place among the main draw action after he dispatched Fabio Fuchs in three.

Second qualifying seed Remo Handl, meanwhile, fell to a shock loss against local player Alex Imhof after he just missed out on what would have been a superb comeback. Handl went two-games down after a fast start from Imhof but battled back to restore parity heading into the fifth game. A resilient Imhof refused to give up though and dug in to edge out the win and seal his spot in the next round where he will face Robert Dadds, 24-year-old Englishman who defeated Jan Kurzmeyer.

Meanwhile, Switzerland’s Christoph Zust came through his encounter against England’s Ben Coates with a 3-0 victory and he will line up against compatriot Dimitri Steinmann after the number six qualifying seed downed Cedric Kuchen.

Jakob Dirnberger and Andres Duany will go head-to-head in the other final qualifying round match after respective wins over Nils Roesch and Roman Allinckx.

Results – First Qualifying Round: Inno Wood Open 2016
[1] Daniel Mekbib (CZE) bt [L] Lukas Burkhart (SUI) 3-0: 11-3, 11-4, 11-7
[7] Luca Wilhelmi (SUI) bt [L] Fabio Fuchs (SUI) 3-0: 11-6, 11-6, 11-1
[L] Andres Duany (PER) bt [8] Roman Allinckx (SUI) 3-0: 11-4, 11-2, 11-5
[4] Jakob Dirnberger (AUT) bt [L] Nils Roesch (SUI) 3-0: 11-3, 11-3, 11-8
[L] Christoph Zust (SUI) bt [3] Ben Coates (ENG) 3-0: 12-10, 11-4, 11-8
[6] Dimitri Steinmann (SUI) bt [L] Cedric Kuchen (SUI) 3-1: 10-12, 11-5, 11-3, 11-4
[5] Robert Dadds (ENG) bt [L] Jan Kurzmeyer (SUI) 3-1: 4-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-3
[L] Alex Imhof (SUI) bt [2] Remo Handl (SUI) 3-2: 12-10, 11-7, 9-11, 9-11, 11-4

Draw – Final Qualifying Round
[1] Daniel Mekbib (CZE) v [7] Luca Wilhelmi (SUI)
[L] Andres Duany (PER) v [4] Jakob Dirnberger (AUT)
[L] Christoph Zust (SUI) v [6] Dimitri Steinmann (SUI)
[5] Robert Dadds (ENG) v [L] Alex Imhof (SUI)