Emily Whitlock reports from Le Sport
Three of the top four seeds reach the semi-finals in Rhos, with a popular win for Le Sport’s own Karim Ali Fathi to keep home interest alive …
Julien Balbo bt Richie Fallows 11-5, 11-6, 11-5 (30m)
A tired Richie Fallows stepped onto court this afternoon against the number 1 seed Julien Balbo to see if he could produce another tournament upset.
He started well, happily rallying with the experienced Frenchman and slotting away anything loose.
But at 3-1 up, you could see the young junior tiring and no matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t keep it up today.
Richie’s playing in the Pioneer Junior Cup in Cologne this weekend and starts on Friday, he’ll certainly have a well-deserved rest day of travelling tomorrow!
Alex Philips bt Chris Fuller 11-5, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9 (61m)
This match between two solid players was the only “lengthy” match of the evening!
Both played well (at least, I thought that anyway!) and from the start they tried to keep the rallies going and work each other around the court but Alex who seemed to have the edge over his hardworking opponent and progressed through as the next seeded player to reach the semi finals against Julien tomorrow.
Dec James bt Ben Ford 11-2, 6-2 rtd (15m)
Sadly there’s not much to report here apart from Ben didn’t look to be “all there” really and retired halfway through the second…
Karim Ali Fathi bt Nathan Lake 11-5, 11-7, 11-4 (35m)
In the words of Dec James “Karim’s game is just pure aggression”.
I can’t deny it, it’s true! He just attacked from start to finish and Nathan resisted as much as he could, but just didn’t seem to have the same amount of pace as the Egyptian.
Last time these two played, it was at a junior tournament two years ago with Nathan winning 3-2, Karim’s definitely improved since then and it showed through his ability to literally kill the ball away at every opportunity.
To the delight of his “home” crowd, he advanced through to the semis in three well-contested games and will hopefully have a good match with Dec who is also coached by Phil!
