Unseeded Ayman is a winner

It’s unusual for an unseeded player to lose his first match and go on to win an event but that is exactly what happened on Sunday for Ayman Al-Sibassi in the Cadet Boys’ Singles at the Cippenham Cadet and Under-13 2-Star Open Championships. The eventual champion, from Surrey, lost a fantastic scrap with Ross MacNiven 10-12, 11-7, 11-7, 9-11, 9-11 in the first match of the preliminary round group and then only just got the better of Simon Ha 11-7 in the deciding game to clinch second place in that group. Defeat here would have placed Al-Sibassi in the consolation event.

After those early scares it just got easier for Al-Sibassi. In the competition proper he saw off challenges from Joshua Robinson 3-0, Rafi Conn-Kowlessar 3-1 and then Foluso Thomas 3-0 to arrive at the semi-final stage in the spot vacated by the absent top seed. In that semi-final it was another storming 3-0 win over Mikael Papantoniou who had played his part in the upsets by eliminating third seed Thomas Dantzig in the quarters. This set up a final encounter with second seed Michael Ho who, until that time, had only dropped one game in his majestic route to the final. That all changed when Al-Sibassi got the better of two of the three games that went to deuce points and also won the first 11-8 to clinch the title 3-1.

Ho’s path to the semi-final was matched by Dritan Sadiku as the two seeded players in the bottom half of the drawn met with little resistance en route.

Ho’s disappointment at losing the Cadet Boys’ final was tempered by his having already won the Under-13 event in the morning. The top seed started the day’s proceedings in which all of the four main events were won by players from Surrey. Ho was not troubled until Reece Placid took one game off him in their quarter-final and then third seed Brandon Crouchman also got one in the semi-final. The final was different, however. Ho needed all his nerve to come back from 2-1 down against fourth seed Rafi Conn-Kowlessar. The only shock of the event was the defeat of second seed Ross MacNiven by Jack Thomas in the quarters but then he lost 3-0 to Conn-Kowlessar in their semi-final.

Lucy Lou was the star of the girls’ events. In the morning she won a round robin for the Under-13 title, relegating Tracey Simpson into second spot and then in the afternoon she got through her group, despite a loss to Rachel West, to book a semi-final place against Majeda Yasmin, a match that Lou won comfortably 3-0. In the final, though, she had to give second best to top seed Feifei Pei whose only tough match was a 3-2 win in the preliminary round group against Chantal Wilson.

Results of finals:

Cadet Boys’ Singles: Ayman Al-Sibassi (Surrey) beat Michael Ho (Surrey) 11-8, 16-14, 10-12, 13-11

Cadet Girls’ Singles: Feifei Pei (Surrey) beat Lucy Lou (Surrey) 11-5, 11-9, 11-7

Under-13 Boys’ Singles: Michael Ho (Surrey) beat Rafi Conn-Kowlessar (Middx) 4-11, 11-9, 6-11, 11-4, 11-5

Under-13 Girls’ Singles: 1. Lucy Lou (Surrey), 2. Tracey Simpson ((Middx)

Cadet Boys’ Consolation: Joshua James (Middx) beat Omar Lofty (Middx) 11-4, 11-9, 11-4

Cadet Girls’ Consolation: Chantal Wilson (Middx) beat Tracey Simpson (Middx) 11-9, 11-5, 8-11, 13-11

Under-13 Boys’ Consolation: Erick Fuentes (Middx) beat Mehul Modha (Middx) 11-8, 9-11, 11-4, 11-8