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Monday May 21, 2007

Junior player upsets top seed Hansen in satellite event

By S. SIVABALAN

Keeping court: Delia Arnold (right) returns a shot to team-mate Low Wee Nee in their first round match yesterday. Delia won 9-1, 9-4, 9-0.
KUALA LUMPUR: Top national junior Low Wee Wern caused a major upset when she knocked out top seeded Dane Line Hansen to qualify for the quarter-finals of the women’s event in the NSC Satellite No.3 squash tournament at the National Squash Centre in Bukit Jalil yesterday.

There were also upsets in the men’s tournament as national back-up players Ivan Yuen and Kamran Khan turned the tables on their respective opponents to reach the last eight.

The unseeded Wee Wern, who is ranked 90th in the world, beat world No. 40 Hansen 9-3, 6-7, 9-7, 9-7 in hard-fought first round match which lasted 80 minutes.

Wee Wern will meet fifth seed Annie Au of Hong Kong in the last eight.

“There was no pressure on me during the match. I just went in there and gave it my best,” said Wee Wern.

“The game plan was to keep Hansen at the back part of the court as much as possible. The strategy worked in the first game so I stuck with it for the rest of the match.

“My shots were also coming in well during the crucial moments especially in the closing stages of the third and fourth games.

“I am now looking forward to my next match against Annie. We haven’t played each other in nearly two years. We last met during a junior tournament.

“A lot of things have changed. I am expecting a tough and interesting match.”

The two met in the third round of the World Junior Championships in Herentals, Belgium in July 2005 and Wee Wern came out tops winning 9-4, 9-5, 9-6.

Yesterday, Delia Arnold, Lim Yoke Wah and Siti Munirah Jusoh, joined Wee Wern in the quarter-finals.

Delia defeated her Wee Wern’s sister Wee Nee 9-1, 9-4, 9-0 while Yoke Wah overcame India’s Surbhi Misra 9-1, 9-7, 9-0. Siti Munirah easily disposed of Anwesha Reddy of India 9-3, 9-6, 9-6.

P. Pushppa Devi, the other local player, fell in the first round.

Unseeded Japan’s Misaki Kobayashi created the other upset in the women tournament yesterday when she defeated eighth seed Leung Shin Nga of Hong Kong 9-2, 7-9, 3-9, 10-8, 9-5.

Meanwhile, Ivan, who is unseeded, shocked team-mate Shahril Shahidan, the fifth seed 11-7, 9-11, 11-3, 11-7 while Kamran upstaged Pakistan’s Yasin Amjad, the eighth seed 6-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-8 in the first round.

Nafiizwan Adnan, the second seed overcome India’s Parth Sharma 11-10 (2-0), 11-8, 11-10 (2-0) while his elder brother Nafzahizam defeated compatriot Elvinn Keo 11-8, 11-8, 11-10 (2-0).

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