April 12, 2002	Friday	Muharram 28, 1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

LONDON, April 11: David Palmer’s title defence spluttered to a cramp-ridden halt in the second round of the British Open on Thursday after 110 minutes of collisions, contentious dialogue, and exhausting rallies.

The Australian was beaten 15-13 8-15 15-13 15-9 by Welshman Alex Gough, who found ways to spoil Palmer’s rhythm, slow him down and taunt him abut his evaporating energy.

“I am running into him because he’s a bit static,” Gough yelled to the referee after one collision caused Palmer to circle the court for a whole minute to recover.

“Do you want to carry on — are you really sure?” Gough enquired after another heavy bump and lengthy delay.

Both players knew there was a possibility of a long and draining encounter on the warm, plaster-walled courts which are being used until the tournament moves to a glass show-court on Saturday in Manchester for the quarter-finals onwards.

“I can’t say I like the courts, but that’s not an excuse. I got slower and slower the longer the match went on,” admitted Palmer. “I didn’t play well the day before but I thought I would be better today and I wasn’t.

“The third game was crucial and if I had managed to take that, maybe I wouldn’t have suffered from cramps.”

The upset opens up an easier route to the final for former champion Jonathon Power, from Canada, who reached the quarter-finals with a 15-8, 15-13, 17-15 win over Australian Paul Price, the former British Open finalist.

Earlier, David Evans, one of the most surprising winners of the British Open when he took the title in 2000, became one of its most unexpected losers as he was beaten by a qualifier in the first round Wednesday.

The world number 10 from Wales lost 15-9 15-10 15-9 to little-known Englishman Peter Genever, who amazed with his performance then claimed the philosopher-astronomer Galileo’s ideas on trajectories had helped him with his strokes.

Evans, who has suffered from an Achilles problem, looked as though his movement was restricted.

But Genever took his opportunity well, getting in front of his opponent, taking the ball early, and preventing the former champion from causing havoc with his wrong-footing disguises.

Then the world number 35 from Chichester in southern England declined to talk about backhands and forehands and discussed the book Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder instead.

Genever was helped by the fact that he got decent leads in all three games, creating doubt in Evans’s mind that he could get into the match.

Another seed to go out was former World Open finalist Del Harris, who quit after one game with food poisoning, allowing fellow Englishman Paul Johnson to move into the second round.

Top seed, and world champion, Peter Nicol needed five games and an hour and 25 minutes before beating the French qualifier Renan Lavigne 15-12,11-15,15-4,11-5,15-8.