Top Seeds Suffer In Heliopolis Open Upsets

Only one of the players seeded to reach the last four of the Rotary Heliopolis Open survived the quarter-finals in a day of sensational upsets in the $40,000 PSA Tour event at the National Stadium in Nasr City in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

Favourite Karim Darwish was the biggest casualty. The world No9 from Cairo - the event's runner-up twelve months ago - failed to capitalise on a 2/1 lead against Laurens Jan Anjema, and lost out to the unseeded Dutchman in a tense fifth game tie-break.

It was Anjema's second successive upset in the event after beating Canada's sixth seed Shahier Razik in the first round. His 11-8, 6-11, 10-11 (0-2), 11-5, 11-10 (3-1) victory in 61 minutes over Darwish takes Anjema into a semi-final against another Egyptian, Mohammed Abbas - the only player to achieve his seeded position.

The third seed from Cairo seed beat Spain's eighth seed Borja Golan 11-9, 11-8, 11-4 in 48 minutes.

Egypt will be represented in the other semi-final - but not by the player seeded to do so: Ramy Ashour, the fourth seed playing his first PSA event since triumphing for a record second time in the world junior championship last month in New Zealand, went down 11-4, 11-8, 11-8 to England's Peter Barker, the seventh seed.

Barker - the left-hander from Essex who has the unenviable task of taking on Peter Nicol in the first round of his farewell event in the UK, the Mamut English Open, next week - will now face Egypt's Wael El Hindi for a place in the final.

El Hindi, the fifth seed, edged out Finland's No2 seed Olli Tuominen 11-10 (4-2), 11-7, 11-5 in 49 minutes.

Quarter-finals:
Laurens Jan Anjema (NED) bt [1] Karim Darwish (EGY) 11-8, 6-11, 10-11 (0-2), 11-5, 11-10 (3-1) (61m)
[3] Mohammed Abbas (EGY) bt [8] Borja Golan (ESP) 11-9, 11-8, 11-4 (48m)
[7] Peter Barker (ENG) bt [4] Ramy Ashour (EGY) 11-4, 11-8, 11-8 (42m)
[5] Wael El Hindi (EGY) bt [2] Olli Tuominen (FIN) 11-10 (4-2), 11-7, 11-5 (49m)