Qualifying Draws to a Close in Zenit Open

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The final qualifying round of the Zenit Black Sea Open, PSA M5 tournament saw top qualifying seed Belal Nawar reach his second PSA World Tour main draw of 2016 with a hard fought victory over Ukraine’s Konstiantyn Rybalchenko.

Nawar opened up his qualifying campaign with a straight games win against Konstantin Reshetnyak and maintained his winning form against Rybalchenko, coming back from 2-1 down to win in five.

Nawar’s reward is a main draw clash with fellow Egyptian Basem Makram in the opening round as the former bids to reach the quarter-final stage of a PSA World Tour event for only the second time in his career.

Elsewhere, Iran’s Navid Maleksabet is also through to the main draw after sweeping past Konstantin Kostrykin and he will contest his first round fixture with Martin Svec of the Czech Republic.

Maleksabet’s compatriot, Seyed Mohammad Reza Ziyaekashan, and Italy’s Stephane Galifi are the other players to emerge unscathed from the final round of qualifying.

Ziyaekashan rose to a 3-0 win against Ahmed Al Kiremli, while Galifi dropped a solitary game in his triumph against Marc ter Sluis. They will face Finland’s Matias Tuomi and Ahmed Hussein, respectively, in the opening round of the main draw.

Results – Final Qualifying Round: Zenit Black Sea Open 2016
[1] Belal Nawar (EGY) bt [L] Konstiantyn Rybalchenko (UKR) 3-2: 11-3, 9-11, 14-16, 11-9, 11-7
[5] Seyed Mohammad Reza Ziyaekashani (IRI) bt [3] Ahmed Al Kiremli (IRQ) 3-0: 11-6, 11-4, 11-5
[4] Navid Maleksabet (IRI) bt [6] Konstantin Kostrykin (RUS) 3-0: 11-6, 11-8, 11-4
[L] Stephane Galifi (ITA) bt [2] Marc ter Sluis (NED) 3-1: 11-6, 11-9, 10-12, 11-3

Main Draw – First Round
[1] Matthew Hopkin (AUS) v Aitor Zunzunegui (ESP)
Jami Aijanen (FIN) v [7] Julian Tomlinson (ENG)
[8] Basem Makram (EGY) v [Q] Belal Nawar (EGY)
Khaled Mostafa (EGY) v [4] Patrick Rooney (ENG)
[3] Matias Tuomi (FIN) v [Q] Seyed Mohammad Reza Ziyaekashan (IRI)
[Q] Stephane Galifi (ITA) v [5] Ahmed Hussein (EGY)
[6] Martin Svec (CZE) v [Q] Navid Maleksabet (IRI)
Hesham Mohamed Aly (EGY) v [2] Mark Fuller (ENG)