Maidstone schoolboy James Evans sprang a major surprise by overpowering number five seed Rory Pennell in the first qualifying round of the SE Leisure Kent Open.
The 16-year-old Evans won 11-5, 6-11, 11-7, 11-6 in 37 minutes of accomplished, intelligent, attacking squash.
Playing on his favourite court at his home club, The Mote, Evans quickly found a good length, moving the more experienced Pennell out of his comfort zone.
Evans volleyed solidly at every opportunity and his drops paid dividends in the front left corner. Evans retrieved superbly in the opening game and his confidence grew as he opened an early lead and maintained his discipline to win it 11-5.
Pennell countered in the second and from 5-5 he closed out the game 11-6.
However, Evans battled through a physically demanding third game to produce a decisive breakthrough. From 5-3 down he hit back to draw level at 7-7, and matched his outstanding retrieval with some superb winners to clinch the game 11-7.
His confidence boosted, Evans opened up an early lead in the fourth game and although Pennell enjoyed a run of points to hit back from 2-5 down to 6-7, Evans again finished strongly.
His reward is a place in the qualifying finals against Pakistan’s Adil Maqbool, the top seed in the qualifying competition.
France’s Antoine-Camille Petrucci is the only other non-Englishman still in with a chance of making the main draw, and he faces Chris Fuller, whose elder brother Mark who progressed thanks to a last-gasp 14-12 in the fifth win over Tristan Eysele to set up a match with Declan James, the qualifying second seed who showed no mercy in his match against tournament sponsor Jonny Powell.
Alex Preston and Steve London meet in another all-England qualifying finals matchup, which gets under way at 5pm at The Mote club.
