Austrian Open: One of two Austrians left

von Aqeel Rehman · 5. Juni 2019

The spectators in the EUROPARK shopping mall saw eight first round matches of the Austrian Open. Some of the matches were one sided, some were very tight and some of them ended with upsets.

The day started with two ‚expected‘ wins of Valentin Rapp (GER) and Sergio Garcia Pollan (ESP). The spaniard won the Spanish affair gainst Nilo Vidal who celebrated his 21st birthday yesterday.

Then it was Cédric Kuchen’s day when he caused the biggest upset of the day. The swiss took out number 3 seed Abhay Singh from India in a five game battle!

After that all the matches went acording to the seeding. Even though it took eight seed Vladislav Titov (RUS) five games to beat Hasnaat Farooqi (ENG).

Also the local hero Jakob Dirnberger nearly caused a huge upset against number 4 of the tournament Angus Gillams (SCO). After a 2/1 lead it looked like the Austrian could extend his PSA career for a little bit further. But during the fourth game Jakob ran out of steam and Angus turned around the match to win in five games.

This was Jakob’s last PSA match in his carrer. The 39 year old from Salzburg will of course stay in the squash scene!

Last match of the day was between organiser and number 6 seed Aqeel Rehman against David Zeman (CZE). Aqeel was able to keep the Austrian flag up after celebrating a 3/0 victory. The winner of 2017 will play the defending champion and top seed Lyell Fuller (ENG) in a repeat of last years quarterfinal!

These are the line up for the quarterfinales on thursday:

15:30: Valentin Rapp (GER) – Cédric Kuchen (SUI)

16:30: Miko Äijanen (FIN) – Sergio Garcia Pollan (ESP)

17:30: Angus Gillams (SCO) – Vladislav Titov (RUS)

18:30: Aqeel Rehman (AUT) – Lyell Fuller (ENG)

All matches will be updated live on our website. Also you can find more information on our social media channels Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Here are the full scores from the first round:

[5] Valentin Rapp (GER) – Adrian Ostbye (NOR) 11/5, 12/10, 11/5 31min

[7] Sergio Garcia Pollan (ESP) – Nilo Vidal (ESP) 11/9, 6/11, 11/8, 13/11 60 min.

3] Abhay Singh (IND) – Cédric Kuchen (SUI) 11/8, 6/11, 9/11, 11/7, 9/11 60min

[2] Miko Äijanen (FIN) – Amadeo Costa (SUI) 11/3 ,11/7, 11/6 45 min.

[8] Vladislav Titov (RUS) – Hasnaat Farooqi (ENG) 11/4, 11/8, 9/11, 13/15, 11/8 58 min.