Round Two : Jaume downs second seed as Kandra and Beinhard reach quarters

In an action-packed second round of the inaugural German Open, Spain’s Bernat Jaume defeated second seed Marwan ElShorbagy, while home favourites Raphael Kandra and Saskia Beinhard booked their spots in the quarter-finals.

Jaume downs second seed Marwan

Second seed Marwan ElShorbagy crashed out of inaugural German Open in his first match, beaten by an in-form Bernat Jaume in straight games to round off a eventful afternoon session.

In a match that saw 21 decisions and two conduct strokes, Jaume found himself ahead in all three games despite strong fight backs from ElShorbagy.

The final game saw a lot of interruptions, but the Spaniard kept ahead, with several good drops and closed out the third game 11-5 to take his place in the quarter-finals.

“Marwan and I are very close friends,” said Jaume after the match. “I know he wasn’t going to give me anything, just for the fact that we’re cool. I think that if I didn’t take the match with some physicality, and it would be a little scrappy, he would be on top of me.

“I don’t think it was his best day, and I think I took good advantage of the dead ball.

“Inside the chaos I think I stayed more calm than him. I think that first game was very crucial. We were playing some squash and I carried on the momentum and I’m really happy about that.

“It’s a very big win. It’s my first win against a top ten player, and he’s a legend of the game so it’s going to stay with me forever.”

In the first match of the day, third seed Georgina Kennedy controlled her second round encounter against Malaysia’s Ainaa Amani to a comfortable 3-0 win.

Amani, who defeated Switzerland’s Nadia Pfister in the first round, couldn’t keep up with the England No.1’s physicality, and Kennedy lead the opening phase convincingly, maintaining a strong lead throughout the first game to win 11-4.

The second game saw an even more controlled showing from the Englishwoman and except a tin hit at 9-0, Kennedy played a flawless game, pulling Amani around the court while more errors crept into the Malaysian’s play. Kennedy continued her dominance into the third and final game, and won 11-2 to round off an impressive second round performance.

An equally strong performance was seen in the first men’s match of round two, as Malaysia’s Eain Yow Ng beat  Israel’s Daniel Poleshchuk in an exciting 3-0 win.

The Malaysian had the lead throughout, and saw comfortable 11-4, 11-3, 11-5 wins, but the Israeli did win several impressive points, including a athletic effort in at 3-6 in the third game where after scrambling to recover two pin-point shots from the No.3 seed, Poleshchuk found a perfect length and buried a winner into the back right corner.

In an intense final match of the second round, home favourite Raphael Kandra produced a sensational performance to defeat Switzerland’s Yannick Wilhelmi. Wilhelmi had a fast start, quickly pushing to a 4-0 lead, but the No.5 seed fought back, and in front of a packed Hamburg crowd, used a mixture of accuracy and physicality to battle back to 9-8.

At 9-9, Kandra earned a first game ball with a tight squeeze on the left wall, but after the German hit the tin, the Swiss No.3 took the tie-break to take 1-0 lead in the match. Kandra looked more convincing at the start of the second game, taking a quick 4-1 lead. Wilhelmi played some quality squash, but the German comfortably converted his lead 11-6 to restore parity in the match.

The match livened up as most rallies saw one of the players diving across the court to retrieve accurate shot after accurate shot. The spectacle kept the entire Sportwerk centre on the edge of their seats as the pair traded games to a decisive fifth game.

The physical, diving squash seemed to have worn the Swiss player down, and Kandra took a 4-1 lead with lightning fast reactions to score a forehand drop from a fast shot into his body. Kandra pushed on and claimed victory in the dramatic five-setter, encapsulated with a pin-point backhand drop shot on match ball. The home favourite will face No.3 seed Mohamed ElSherbini in the quarter-finals

“I have still have a lot of energy left in the tank,” said Kandra after the match. “It was a hard brutal five-setter, but the pace suited my game and I’m glad I got through.”

The only other German to reach the second round was World No.64 Saskia Beinhard, who claimed revenge over Switzerland’s Cindy Merlo after a first round defeat just 23 days before at the Optasia Championships in England. Beinhard carried the momentum from her first round comeback against Egypt’s Rana Ismail into the match, and looked to be retrieving well from the back corners.

The eighth seed had the first chance of taking the first game at 10-8, but the Swiss player levelled the match with a straight drive, followed by an ace to make it 10-10. After a close-fought tie-break, Beinhard took the advantage with a tight squeeze on the left wall. From there, the German controlled the match, dispatching Merlo with quick-fire 11-5, 11-4 games to take her place in the quarter-finals to face No.4 seed Salma Hany.

Quarter-Finals take place on Friday, all on the Glass Court.