R1: Greg L 3-0 Tayyab, Yahya 3-0 Lucas, Leonel 3-1 David

Greg Lobban (SCO) 3-0 Tayyab Aslam (PAK) 11-7, 11-2, 11-5 (24m)
Yahya Elnawasany (EGY) 3-0 Lucas Serme (FRA) 11-6, 11-8, 11-8 (40m)
Leonel Cardenas (MEX) 3-1 David Baillargeon (CAN)  11-9, 7-11, 11-1, 11-7 (45m)

Leonel

“I’m really happy with the result. I didn’t play that well and David is a good player and made things very hard for me, so congratulations to him.”

Victor Crouin playing really well and having good results and I’m happy for him because he deserves it. I’m just going to give it everything and try my best, that’s my only goal for tomorrow.”

Yahya

I played well today, I’m very happy to win in three.

I tried and play more offensive as I know he likes to play a slow basic game. So I mix the pace as much as I could, pushing him to the front a lot, in the corners, it paid off in the first two games.

At 5/1 in the third, I started to get a little tired, so I was trying to be more accurate, I increased my short game and play short rallies, because I could see he wasn’t coming back in the match, 5/5, 6/2. At the end, it’s fine margins, he played a couple of errors, and I played a couple of good winners.

Tomorrow, I’m playing one of my idols, I grew up watching him play against Ramy, I was very young so I can’t believe it, and I can’t wait! It will be like when I played Tarek in Qatar…. Really looking forward to it… Maybe going to ask for an autograph at the end!….

 

Scottish No.1 Gregg Lobban progressed to the second round with a comfortable 3-0 win over Tayyab Aslam. It took Lobban 25 minutes to overcome Aslam in what was their second meeting on Tour, as the Scotsman won in straight sets 11-7, 11-2 and 11-5.

Greg L

“It was good. I thought the conditions today were going to be hot and bouncy, but it was either a dead ball or a dead court – I’m not too sure. But I’m happy to win 3-0 against someone who’s good with the racket. I’ve had a lot of match practice over the last week or so. It’s my first tournament of the season so it definitely gives me confidence to start the season off with a win.

“Round two will be good. These tournaments are the ones you want to do really well at and the ones you’ve got to be in good shape for because whoever I play next is going to be really tough. I think it’s really even at these events now, anyone can beat anyone as we saw in Qatar. It’s all for the taking and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”