Norman through to quarter-final

Press, 14 March 1987, Page 84

Norman through to quarter-final

NZPA-Reuter Paris The top seed, Jahangir Khan, of Pakistan and the defending champion, Ross Norman, of New Zealand, both dropped a game before taking their appointed quarter-final places in the French Open squash championship yesterday. Jahangir, victor here for four years in a row before missing last year’s tournament, won his second-round encounter with the Australian, Rodney Martin, 15-10, 15-3, 15-17, 15-7 under experimental American-style

scoring introduced for the first time in a European championship. Norman, who succeeded Jahangir here last year and beat him in the World Open final in Toulouse last November, surrendered the first game before overcoming Sweden’s Jan-Ulf Soderberg 12-15, 15-6, 15-11, 1715.

Jahangir appeared set for a straight games win in the third but squandered a 12-9 lead amid a series of umpiring calls he did not like and allowed the Australian to

snatch it in the tiebreak. The world No. 1, who had beaten Martin in last month’s Finnish Open final, reasserted himself forcefully in the following game to line up a lasteight clash with another Australian, Tristan Nancarrow, his semi-final victim on the way to the Spanish Open title last week-end. Nancarrow beat Sweden’s Anders Wahlstedt, first round victor over British seventh seed, Hiddy Jahan, H-15, 15-12, 15-12, 15-12tyester-

day. Norman, the second seed, meets the Briton, Stuart Hailstone, who beat the fifth seed, Qamar Zaman, in the first round and yesterday ousted another Pakistani, Umar Hyatt Khan, 7-15, 15-10, 1512, 11-15, 15-6. The third seed, Stuart Davenport, of New Zealand, dismissed the 17-year-old Pakistani, Jansher Khan, finalist in the Spanish Open four days ago, 15-9, 15-11, 1514 and now faces the Australian left-hander, Chris Dittmar.