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12 Oct 2024

Bernabeu & Harrity Secure Day One Upsets In Manchester

18 May 2023

Spaniard Iker Pajares Bernabeu & USA's Todd Harrity recorded the only upsets on day one of the Manchester Open as the PSA World Tour Silver event got underway at the National Squash Centre in the English city of Manchester.

Harrity needed just 28 minutes to defeat India's Ramit Tandon to book a place in the last 16 round. Harrity moved the ball with great precision into all four corners and tested the movement of Tandon early in the match. Tandon looked to be carrying a slight injury which prohibited his movements to the front corners enabling Harrity to claim his straight games win.

Bernabeu faced France's Gregoire Marche in one of the final clashes of the day and after losing the first game in no time at all, managed to recover and find his fighting spirit to dig deep and start to get in front of his opponent and dictate play. Bernabeu ran through to 10-8 in the fourth game and converted at the first time of asking to take the match 3/1 to set up a second-round clash with recently crowned World Champion Ali Farag.

There were no upsets in the women's draw with the closest matches being won by Egyptian duo Farida Mohamed and Nada Abbas who both came through in four games against English pair Lucy Turmel and Katie Malliff. Malaysia's Sivasangari Subramaniam also needed four games to defeat South Africa's Alexandra Fuller.