Nick Matthew leads the way as five Englishmen advance to second round of Kuwait open
The HH Sheikh Saad Abdullah Al-Sabah Trophy, The Patriarch Amir, Kuwait Open kicked itself off on Thursday, 28 October, and five of the six English players in the top half of the draw all advance to the second round.
Nick Matthew, Daryl Selby, Adrian Grant, Peter Barker, and Alister Walker were all victorious in their first-round matches.
Number one seed Nick Matthew, in his first ever meeting with South African Stephen Coppinger, won in just 49 minutes
11-9, 13-11, 11-6.
"I watched him (Coppinger) play numerous times and I thought I knew his game – but it’s always different until you actually play against him,” Matthew told www.squashsite.co.uk after the match.
"I found it hard to read his game, and he was able to break my game – all credit to him."
Matthew will now face fellow countryman Daryl Selby, currently ranked number 10 in the world, in the next round.
Selby defeated another Englishman in the first round, Johnathan Kemp, who was not fully fit going into the match.
"Today, I was aware of Jonathan’s condition – unlucky for him, but lucky for me," Selby said. "Still, he can hit a nick from any position, so you’ve always got to be on your toes.
"The Commonwealth Games were tough for me," Selby added about his recent form, "a very exciting experience, but disappointing for me, as I set myself goals I couldn’t reach.
And right behind that, I had a bad week in Egypt. So at the moment, I’m trying to remember the matches that got me to the top 10 because I truly believe that the players that reach that level deserve it.
So I just try and remember how I got there."
All the seeded players in the bracket won their matches, including former world number one, Egyptian Amr Shabana (currently the number 3 seed), who was down a game to Australian Stewart Boswell
but came back to win 7-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-6, in 58 minutes.
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