Nour El Sherbini (right) of Egypt plays a shot against Olivia Blatchford of the United States during their Qatar Classic squash championship first round match at Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha yesterday. Sherbini won 3-1. PICTURE: Nasar TK

By Satya Rath/Doha

After Saturday’s mayhem, normal services resumed at the Qatar Classic squash championship yesterday.
At least half a dozen of the tournament’s top seeds were felled by lesser known or unknown opponents as the form book got ripped apart during the opening day’s action. India’s Joshana Chinappa set the tone in the very first match of the championship by knocking out top seed and world No. 1 Raneem El Welily of Egypt, and the trend continued throughout the day and late into the evening as Yathreb Adel and qualifiers Amina Yousry and Fiona Moverley all progressed at the expense of seeded opponents.
Yesterday saw the order being restored, in the women’s draw at least. Most of the seeds had a smooth progress to the next round, starting with No. 3 Camille Serme of France, No. 14 Amanda Sobhy of the US, No. 6 Nour El Sherbini of Egypt, No. 9 Australian Rachael Grinham, No. 16 Victoria Lust of England and the reigning Qatar Classic queen and No. 2 Nicol David of Malaysia, who hardly broke sweat in warming up for the tougher battles ahead.
Only two matches went the distance, with No. 7 seed Annie Au of Hong Kong stretched by compatriot Joey Chan before managing to escape in a 55-minute five-gamer, and No. 11 Jenny Duncalf of England getting the scare of her life from Egyptian qualifier Mayar Hany, who went two games up in no time before the 32-year-old English veteran, a former world No. 2, got her bearings back to take the next three games and the match in a fast-paced 49-minute clash.
Annie admitted she was lucky to come out unscathed from the ‘friendly’ clash: “It’s always tough to play a friend, and somehow we invariably keep getting drawn against each other in tournaments. We practise and play together a lot back home, so we know each other’s games. Joey plays a really fast and attacking game and today she really put me under a lot of pressure.”
“I was pretty lucky in the fourth to save those match balls, in the second I had game balls but made two bad errors so I was just telling myself to play safe, and in the end it worked. After so many upsets yesterday it’s a big relief to get through,” added the Hong Kong player, who next plays Duncalf, who herself had to dig into all her resources to escape from an upset against the 18-year-old Hany.
Malaysian David, who won the title when the women’s event was last played here in 2011, took just 32 minutes to get past Nicolette Fernandes of Guyana 11/4, 11/4, 11/5.
“It’s great to be back in Qatar, everything feels so familiar but it feels like a new tournament! It’s nice to start the tournament off and get cracking with a good performance. The new court is really nice, but it’s very unforgiving so you have to keep the ball as tight as you can,” David said. “I’m very pleased with that start, with a lot of upsets and a lot of new, upcoming young players, you never know what to expect.”
The second round matches start today, where India’s Chinappa will take on Egyptian Yathreb Adel, who upset the odds to record an emphatic 3-0 win over India’s world No. 19 Dipika Pallikal in Saturday’s opening round.

Results (Women’s Round 1)
3-Camille Serme (Fra) 3-0 Q-Coline Aumard (Fra) 11/5, 11/7, 11/6; 14-Amanda Sobhy (US) 3-0 Q-Hania El Hammamy (Egy) 11/4, 11/3, 11/0; 6-Nour El Sherbini (Egy) 3-1 Q-Olivia Blatchford (US) 8/11, 11/7, 11/3, 11/4; 9-Rachael Grinham (Aus) 3-1 Heba El Torky (Egy) 11/6, 11/9, 8/11, 11/9; 7-Annie Au (Hkg) 3-2 Joey Chan (Hkg) 11/9, 11/13, 8/11, 12/10, 11/7; 11-Jenny Duncalf (Eng) 3-2 Q-Mayar Hany (Egy) 6/11, 8/11, 11/4, 11/5, 11/7; 2-Nicol David (Mas) 3-0 Nicolette Fernandes (Guy) 11/4, 11/4, 11/5; 16-Victoria Lust (Eng) 3-1 Tesni Evans (Wal) 13/15, 11/7, 11/9, 11/8