Milwaukee Hong Kong Squash Open 2024, the last platinum event of the year on the PSA World Tour, kicked off at the Squash Centre in Admiralty on Monday. Despite putting up close fights against world class players, all six home players including Henry Leung Chi-hin, Alex Lau Tsz-kwan in the men’s draw and Tomato Ho Tze-lok, Lee Ka-yi, Tong Tsz-wing and Helen Tang in the women’s, blew out in the opening round. But it was a memorable experience for 15-year-old Tang, who was making her debut in the star-studded tournament despite her age.
The young prodigy captured a bronze medal at the Hong Kong Closed Championships in August to earn a wild card entry to the US$415,000 tournament. However, she was handed a tough task against world number six Georgina Kennedy of England in her campaign as Tang lost in straight games 11-8, 11-9, 11-6. But still the youngster was delighted with her performance.
She said, “I did not expect to have done so well, both the score and my performance were much better than I have expected. Overall I am very satisfied and felt little pressure, although I did make some mistakes when I was too eager to get points.”
Tang also paid tribute to the support of the home fans as she had learned a lot from the match against such a quality player. “I hope I can continue to make improvement so that I can qualify again for the Hong Kong Open next year,” she said.
Another home player, Tomato Ho, the World No. 26, took the opening game against Lisa Aitken of Scotland 12-10 but could not maintain her momentum before losing 3-1 after a 11-8, 11-9 and 11-4 defeat in the following three games.
Her compatriot Lee, ranked 42nd in the world, was beaten by eighth seed Rowan Elaraby of Egypt in straight games 11-8, 11-8, 11-4 while her teammate Tong, ranked four places behind Lee, was also no match against Sana Ibrahim of Egypt following a 11-8, 11-6, 11-7 defeat.
With a reduced draw of all platinum events from 48 players to this year’s 32, Lee said she had to adjust her playing mentality. “The new draw size makes it difficult for us to secure a place in the competition as we had first to do well in the Hong Kong Closed Championships for the wild card. We therefore treasured the opportunity of playing in front of the home crowds and tried to do well even if we had to take on very tough opponents.”
In the men’s event, it was an order too tall for Henry Leung as he took on World No. 1 Ali Farag of Egypt in his first outing. Despite taking the first game 11-7, Leung, who ranks 49th, could not continue his feat following a 7-11, 5-11, 4-11 defeat. Leung, however, was not too disappointed with his performance and enjoyed very much against the world’s leading player.
“I have never met him before but Farag is the most talented player on the tour and I really want to find out how it feels like against him,” Leung said. “I am so happy to have the opportunity of playing him in Hong Kong and have learned a lot from the match.”
Team-mate Alex Lau suffered the same destiny, taking the first game 11-9 against Youssef Ibrahim of Egypt but then fell short in the following three as he lost 6-11, 10-12, 8-11.
There was also an upset in the opening day as four-time Hong Kong Open champion Mohamed Elshorbagy, the World No. 6 now playing for England, was stunned by Dimitri Steinmann of Switzerland. The Swiss, ranked 19 in the world, needed only 23 minutes to send Elshorbagy home following a 11-6, 11-4, 11-3 win. He will now face another tough match against fourth seed Diego Elias of Peru in the next round.
The tournament continues at the Hong Kong Squash Centre with the second round on December 3 & 4. The quarterfinals, semifinals and finals will move to Edinburgh Place in Central for the first time from December 5 to 8.
