Day THREE • Cathay Pacific • Sun Hung Kai Financial • Hong Kong Open 2016 •

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TODAY at the ­ Daily Reports

23­Aug, Day THREE, Round One (top): Wildcard Yip takes out third seed in Hong Kong shocker

The first day of main draw play of the first World Series event of the season saw just one upset result as play moved to Hong Kong Squash Centre for the top half of the draws, but what an upset it was a local wildcard Yip Tsz Fung beat third seeded Colombian Miguel Rodriguez in five games to the delight of the packed home crowd. BLOG: Match reports and more After the opening two Photo Gallery games were shared, both in extra points, Rodriguez looked to have weathered the storm as he took the third 11/2, but Yip responded to level the match 11/3 and kept the momentum as he took the decider to claim his biggest win yet.

"I played well at the start but he changed his game in the third," said a delighted Yip. "I managed to change my game to adapt and it worked ­ I'm so happy, I can't quite believe it but it's so good to be able to do this in front of my home crowd!" Report: Yip takes out Miguel

Yip now faces Australian , who took just short of an hour to beat qualifier in three tough games.

James Willstrop came through a tough all­English encounter with Tom Richards to set up a meeting with , one of four Egyptian men's winners.

Karim Abdel Gawad and Mazen Hesham will meet in an all­Egyptian second round while top seed and defending champion Mohamed Elshorbagy faces a repeat of last year's final against Australian Cameron Pilley, who made sure there was only one home winner as he beat Leo Au in three games to finish the day's play.

"It took a couple of days, but the emotions and feeling from last year are coming back," said Pilley, "it's feeling good!"

Report: Shorbagy does enough to hold off Simpson

There were also four Egyptian winners in today's women's matches, led by world number one who beat compatriot Heba El Torky in straight games.

Report: Hold v Power

She'll face home favourite Annie Au for a place in the quarter­finals after Au recovered from a game down to beat HK qualifier Liu Tsz­Ling, while there will be an all­Egyptian second round between third seed Raneem El Welily, who came from a game down to beat Rachael Grinham, and , who needed to save a match ball in her fourth game against Australia's Donna Urquhart before progressing.

Report: Annie's accuracy is key

"I'm so relieved," said Tayeb, who was out of action for most of last season and recently married . "I really didn't want to lose my first match as a married woman!"

The longest match of the day was the first match on the 'upstairs' court nine, a 94­ minute all­English battle which saw Sarah­Jane Perry lose a two­game lead over Victoria Lust before finally clinching the win and setting up a meeting with Amanda Sobhy, the American who ensured that Au would be the last home player in the women's draw as she beat Joey Chan in straight games.

"It's been a long Summer of training," said Sobhy, "so it's really good to get back in action ­ I feel like a kid in a candy shop!"

HK Blog ­ match reports and more

Plenty of photos in the Gallery

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