Scotland’s Alan Clyne is ranked 1 in the 2015 Qatar Classic qualifiers.
By Sports Reporter/Doha
The qualifying rounds for the 2015 edition of the Qatar Classic gets underway today at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex, and the draw has thrown up some enticing match-ups.
In the men’s draw, the Kuwaiti pair of Abdullah Almezayen and Ammar Altamimi come up against Shaun Le Roux and Nasir Iqbal in two tough-looking encounters, while at the bottom of the draw Mahesh Mangaonkar, Charles Sharpes, Ben Coleman and Ryan Cuskelly will be battling it out for a single spot in the main draw.
With Egyptians Ali Farag, Basem Makrem, Omar Abdel Meguid and Mohamed Reda all in the same section of the draw, at least one of them is certain to make the main draw.
In the women’s draw, the top five seeds all have byes, and the pick of the potential qualifying finals look to be Millie Tomlinsdon vs Coline Aumard, Olivia Blatchford vs Lee Ka Yi, Fiona Moverley vs Marian Metwally, and Nouran El Torky vs Hania El Hammamy. Matches start at 12 noon.
Eight players each from the men’s and women’s qualifiers will join the 24 names in the main draw, which starts on October 31. The qualifying finals will be played on October 30 at 1 pm.
There have been two big injury withdrawals--world champion Ramy Ashour of Egypt and world No 2 Nick Matthew of England. As a result, top-ranked Swiss player Nicolas Mueller moves into the main draw automatically where he will face England’s Adrian Waller, while world No 3 Gregory Gaultier moves up to occupy the number two seeding and will face Spaniard Borja Golan in the first round.
Ali Bin Ali Group are the official sponsors of the event which runs till November 6. The other sponsors are Qatar Airways, Pepsi, QNB and Jaidah Automotive.
Qualifying
Round One (Men)
12.00 [1] Alan Clyne (Sco) vs Shehab Essam (Egy)
12.00 [12] Joe Lee (Eng) vs Lance Beddoes (Nzl)
12.50 [11] Shaun Le Roux (Rsa) vs Abdullaa Almezayen (Kuw)
12.50 [6] Leo Au (Hkg) vs Jaymie Haycocks (Eng)
13.40 [7] Zahed Mohamed (Egy) vs Henrik Mustonen (Fin)
13.40 [10] Greg Lobban (Sco) vs Tayyab Aslam (Pak)
17.00 [14] Ali Farag (Egy) vs Basem Makrem (Egy)
17.00 [4] Omar Abdel Meguid (Egy) vs Mohamed Reda (Egy)
17.50 [3] Gregoire Marche (Fra) vs Syed Azlan Amjad (Qat)
17.50 [13] Nasir Iqbal (Pak) vs Ammar Altamimi (Kuw)
16.10 [15] Olli Tuominen (Fin) vs Ahmed al-Tamimi (Qat)
16.10 [5] Nafiizwan Adnan (Mas) vs Jonas Daehler (Sui)
15.20 [8] Mohamed Abouelghar (Egy) vs Carlos Cornes (Esp)
15.20 [9] Raphael Kandra (Ger) vs Abdulrahman al-Malki (Qat)
14.30 [16] Mahesh Mangaonkar (Ind) vs Charles Sharpes (Eng)
14.30 [2] Ryan Cuskelly (Aus) vs Ben Coleman (Eng)
Round Two (Women)
[1] Donna Urquhart (Aus) bye
12.00 [12] Mayar Hany (Egy) vs Hana Essam Khedr (Egy)
12.50 [11] Millie Tomlinson (Eng) vs Nada Abbas (Egy)
12.50 [6] Coline Aumard (Fra) vs Mena Nasser (Egy)
[5] Milou van der Heijden (Ned) bye
13.40 [9] Nadine Shahin (Egy) vs Sadia Gul (Pak)
14.30 [6] Lee Ka Yi (Hkg) vs Alison Thonson (Eng)
[3] Olivia Blatchford (Usa) bye
[4] Mariam Metwally (Egy) bye
15.20 [10] Fiona Moverley (Eng) vs Nadia Usenko (Ukr)
16.10 [13] Sina Wall (Ger) vs Saima Shoukat (Pak)
16.10 [8] Liu Tsz-Ling (Hkg) vs Amina Yousry (Egy)
17.00 [7] Nouran El Torky (Egy) vs Sammer Anjum (Pak)
17.00 [14] Hania El Hammamy (Egy) vs Muqaddas Ashraf (Pak)
17.50 [15] Farah Abdel Meguid (Egy) vs Carmen Lee (Hkg)
[2] Misaki Kobayashi (Jpn) bye