Darwish out, Rodrigues battles through!

Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL) beat Mohd Ali Anwar Reda (EGY) in the 1st rd. of the US Open 11-9, 11-13, 3-11, 11-5, 11-5

The top half of the draw saw all the expected players progress, but the bottom half of 1st round action at the US Open did show some unexpected win, Colombia’s Miguel Angel Rodrigues (pic le) ran for his life to beat Egyptian Ali Anwar Reda (pic ri), coming back from 1/2 down to win in 83 minutes (11-9, 11-13, 3-11, 11-5, 11-5). Next surprise was the defeat of 2nd seed Karim Darwish by Malaysia’s Azlan Iskandar as Darwish conceding the match caused by an ankle injury after being down 1/2 games and 4-7 in the 4th game. Swiss Nicolas Mueller entered the last 16 as Jon Kemp was forced to pull out with a back injury.

Further results of the 1st round (top half): [4] Amr Shabana (Egy) bt Wael El Hindi (Egy) 11-7, 11-4, 9-11, 11-5 (58m); Adrian Grant (Eng) bt [Q] Shawn Delierre (Can) 12-10, 11-5, 11-4 (37m); Laurens Jan Anjema (Ned) bt [Q] Chris Ryder (Eng) 11-6, 11-7, 11-5 (42m); [8] David Palmer (Aus) bt [Q] Ryan Cuskelly (Aus) 11-8, 11-9, 11-9 (51m); [6] Thierry Lincou (Fra) bt Chris Gordon (Usa) 11-9, 11-5, 11-6 (32m).