I Can't Wait ! Andrew Cross's preview

Kuala Lumpur prepares this week for its first major PSA and WISPA Tournament of the year and it promises to be another brilliant event. Last year’s championships were won by Ramy Ashour and Dato Nicol David and even though Ramy is not here this year the runner up from last year Karim Darwish is and he is the favourite to take the title.


Darwish will face tough competition from his compatriot Mohammed El Shorbagy the two times World Junior Champion and a player that has played in Malaysia many times before and he will be looking to reach the final here for the first time.

Azlan Iskandar the home favourite will be looking to build on his success in 2011 having just reached the top 10 for the first time this month and having won the Bluenose Classic earlier this year. Last year he made the semi finals of this event losing to Darwish and he will be looking to build on his good form so far. He has two of his fiercest Asian rivals to play should he be able to get past both Farhan Mehboob and Aamir Atlas Khan he will possibly meet Darwish in the semis.

The outstanding first round tie of the competition will be between Ong Beng Hee of Malaysia and India’s fast rising star Saurav Ghosal. Beng Hee who has had tough draws here in the last few years usually drawing Shorbagy will be happy to have avoided another rematch with him but knows he will be in for a tough time against Saurav who showed good form last week in the World Cup in India. The winner of this will face Darwish in the quarters and that will be an extremely tough match should Darwish progress past Simon Rosner in the opening round.

The women’s event is where Malaysia’s own Dato’ Nicol David will be looking for her 7th KL Open title but she will face an extremely tough fight this year as a group of girls look to close the gap and move in on her World Number one ranking. David who suffered a defeat earlier this year to Laura Massaro in the Cleveland Wispa classic could have a chance for early revenge should Massaro advance past Kasey Brown of Australia in the first round. Massaro this year has been in good form having won the recent British Nationals for the first time. Nicol will open her campaign against a qualifier.

Malaysia’s other player in the first round will be Low Wee Wern and her first game will be with Rachel Grinham who is a vastly experienced player who will be looking to do well again here.

In the bottom half of the draw Jenny Duncalf has the toughest draw having to get past the racket skills of Annie Au.

Egypt’s bid for the title comes from Omneya Abdel Kawy who was the runner up here last year and she opens up against a qualifier before taking on Irish star Madeline Perry who also plays a qualifier in the first round.

Qualifying begins on Tuesday at the National Centre in Bukit Jalil where the first round will also be played. On Friday evening we will move to Berjaya Times Square in central Kuala Lumpur which is a fantastic venue and host for the last few years.

This year’s event promises to be extremely exciting and I cannot wait for the event to get started.