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Saturday September 22, 2007

Squash: Beng Hee moves on

Matthew: The defending champion beats Malaysia's Mohd Azlan Iskandar in the second round yesterday.
MANCHESTER: Malaysia's Ong Beng Hee stormed into the quarter-finals of the British Open squash championships when he stunned eighth seed Stewart Boswell of Australia 11-6, 11-7, 9-11, 11-9 at the National Squash Centre here yesterday.

Beng Hee's hard-fought win make up for the earlier loss of Malaysian number one Mohd Azlan Iskandar to defending champion Nick Matthew of England in the second round.

Matthew, the sixth seed, won 9-11, 5-11, 4-11 to set up a quarter-final meeting against world number one Amr Shabana of Egypt, who defeated Lee Beachill of England 11-5, 7-11, 14-12, 11-3.

Beng Hee's opponent in the last eight will be either fourth seed Theirry Lincou of France or Mohammad Abbas of Egypt.

On Thursday, the 16th seed Beng Hee had to slog for 69 minutes before downing Alex Gough of Wales 8-11, 11-5, 11-9, 10-12, 11-9 in the opening round.

In the women's category, two-time champion Rachael Grinham of Australia got her campaign off to a bright start, taking 51 minutes to conquer France's Isabelle Stoehr 9-5, 9-3, 5-9, 9-2 in the first round.

Third seed Grinham will face eight seed Vanessa Atkinson of Holland, who strolled past Alison Waters of England 9-7, 9-3, 9-6, for a place in the semi-finals.

Atkinson looked trimmer and more chipper than for a couple of years during her impressive win on a hot and bouncy outside court.

“I was glad to finish it off in three,” she said.

The Dutchwoman had undergone spells of patchy form caused by injury and loss of confidence over the past years.

Grinham’s younger sister Natalie, the second seed, also advanced to the last eight with an easy 9-4, 9-3, 9-4 win over Ireland's Laura Mylotte.

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