England’s Jaymie Haycocks produced the win of his life when he became the lowest-ranked player to qualify for the Qatar PSA World Squash Championship after upsetting the highest-ranked opponent in today’s qualifying competition for the PSA World Tour’s premier championship in the Qatar capital Doha.<\/p>\n
Boasting a $325,000 prize-fund – the second biggest in the sport’s history – the Qatar PSA World Championship is being hosted by Qatar for the third time, following previous stagings in 1998 and 2004, and is being held at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex.<\/p>\n
Haycocks, a 29-year-old from Birmingham, is in his seventh year as a member of the PSA and ranked 87 in the world. His opponent Campbell Grayson is a New Zealander whose world ranking at the time of the draw was 50 – just one position below an automatic place in the main draw – but is currently ranked ten places higher.<\/p>\n
However, in his first ever meeting with the Kiwi, Haycocks totally disregarded the rankings – and battled for 104 minutes to overcome Grayson 8-11, 11-7, 12-10, 11-13, 11-5 to earn his first appearance in the main draw of the PSA World Championship after only once before trying to qualify, four years ago.<\/p>\n
In his career-first appearance in the main draw of any PSA World Series event, Haycocks will line up against unseeded Australian Ryan Cuskelly, the world No33.<\/p>\n
Another Englishman also claimed a surprise place in the main draw when Surrey’s Charles Sharpes, ranked 71 in the world, beat Kamran Khan – a Malaysian seeded to win – 11-4, 11-9, 11-8 in 36 minutes.<\/p>\n
London-born Sharpes, aged 20, will make his maiden appearance in the championship against fellow Briton Alan Clyne, the top-ranked Scot.
With Haycocks and Sharpes joined by Robbie Temple, Joe Lee and Olivier Pett, England boasts five qualifiers in the main draw – but successful qualifying endeavours by Peter Creed, Abdullah Al Muzayen, Kristian Frost Olesen and Mark Krajcsak will extend main draw representation by a further four countries.<\/p>\n
Creed became the only Welsh representative in the first round after beating higher-ranked Mexican Cesar Salazar 5-11, 10-12, 12-10, 13-11, 11-8 in 75 minutes, while Al Muzayen added sole Kuwait interest following an 11-8, 14-12, 11-8 victory over Frenchman Julien Balbo.<\/p>\n
Two Danes were bidding for main draw honours, but only Olesen was successful, beating Austrian hope Aqeel Rehman 14-12, 13-11, 11-4.
And Krajcsak added Hungary to the list of nations represented in the 64-main draw when he overturned Denmark’s Rasmus Nielsen 3-11, 14-12, 11-7, 11-7.<\/p>\n
Updated 1st round draw :
[1] James Willstrop (ENG) v Chris Ryder (ENG)
Shawn Delierre (CAN) v Adrian Waller (ENG)
Saurav Ghosal (IND) v Abdulla Mohd Al Tamimi (QAT)
[14] Tom Richards (ENG) v Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY)
[15] Borja Golan (ESP) v [Q] Kristian Frost Olesen (DEN)
Alan Clyne (SCO) v [Q] Charles Sharpes (ENG)
Mathieu Castagnet (FRA) v [Q] Karim Ali Fathi (EGY)
[6] Peter Barker (ENG) v Martin Knight (NZL)
[8] Mohamed El Shorbagy (EGY) v Mohd Ali Anwar Reda (EGY)
Gregoire Marche (FRA) v [Q] Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY)
Ong Beng Hee (MAS) v Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan (MAS)
[16] Cameron Pilley (AUS) v [Q] Olivier Pett (ENG)
[11] Daryl Selby (ENG) v Olli Tuominen (FIN)
Julian Illingworth (USA) v [Q] Omar Abdel Meguid (EGY)
Simon Rosner (GER) v Siddharth Suchde (IND)
[4] Karim Darwish (EGY) v [Q] Mark Krajcsak (HUN)
[3] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) v Mohammed Abbas (EGY)
Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL) v [Q] Abdullah Al Muzayen (KUW)
Chris Simpson (ENG) v [Q] Matthew Karwalski (AUS)
[9] Laurens Jan Anjema (NED) v Jonathan Kemp (ENG)
[10] Omar Mosaad (EGY) v [Q] Robbie Temple (ENG)
Max Lee (HKG) v Henrik Mustonen (FIN)
Adrian Grant (ENG) v [Q] Rex Hedrick (AUS)
[5] Ramy Ashour (EGY) v Marwan El Shorbagy (EGY)
[7] Amr Shabana (EGY) v [Q] Ivan Yuen (MAS)
Aamir Atlas Khan (PAK) v [Q] Joe Lee (ENG)
Shahier Razik (CAN) v [Q] Shaun le Roux (RSA)
[12] Alister Walker (BOT) v Omar Abdel Aziz (EGY)
[13] Tarek Momen (EGY) v Stephen Coppinger (RSA)
Ryan Cuskelly (AUS) v [Q] Jaymie Haycocks (ENG)
Zac Alexander (AUS) v [Q] Peter Creed (WAL)
[2] Nick Matthew (ENG) v Nicolas Mueller (SUI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
England’s Jaymie Haycocks produced the win of his life when he became the lowest-ranked player to qualify for the Qatar PSA World Squash Championship after upsetting the highest-ranked opponent in today’s qualifying competition for the PSA World Tour’s premier championship in the Qatar capital Doha. Boasting a $325,000 prize-fund – the second biggest in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-others"],"yoast_head":"\n