02 September 2004	Thursday	16 Rajab 1425

HONG KONG, Sept 1: Pakistan's lone hope Mansoor Zaman made an early exit when he was beaten in the first round of the Hong Kong Open squash by Egyptian Karim Darwish in straight games 11-8, 11-5, 11-5 on Wednesday.

But there was no trouble for second seed Lee Beachill of England who outclassed compatriot Mark Chaloner 11-8 11-6 11-5 to cruise into second round. "To get over first round is great and hopefully I will stay alive for rest of the tournament," he said.

France's third-seed Thierry Lincou also had it easy in his first round match, needing only 22 minutes to defeat England's Jonathan Kemp 11-4 11-7 11-2. Scotland's John White, the tournament's fifth-seed player, outplayed England's Peter Barker 11-8 11-2 5-11 11-8 while seventh-seed Amr Shabana from Egypt had no trouble beating England's Simon Parke 11-9 11-8 11-3.

The longest match of the day was between Australians Paul Price And Anthony Ricketts. Price, ranked 21st in the world, was pushed to limit before outlasting 12th-ranked Ricketts 11-4 10-12 (0-2) 11-8 9-11 11-4.

In other first round matches, James Willstrop of England beat Renan Lavigne of France 11-4 11-10 (2-0) 11-5 and Malaysia's Ong Beng Hee defeated Mohammed Abbas of Egypt 6-11 11-8 11-7 4-11 11-8. -PPI