by Simon Daish

Third seeds Cote d’Ivoire ‘B’ started well in its opening tie with opponents Cote d’Ivoire ‘C’ with Andre Bly cruising to a straight games triumph over Bi Cedric Zaouli (11-5, 11-7, 11-9) before a fine effort from Cherif Gbane, who overcame Ibrahim Gueye (11-6, 11-9, 11-5), doubled the advantage. Cote d’Ivoire ‘B’ sealed the win one match later as Andre Bly stepped up to earn his second victory over Bi Cedric Zaouli (11-8, 11-8, 8-11, 7-11, 11-5).

The test was much trickier in the second round of fixtures as Cote d’Ivoire ‘B’ held off a strong challenge from Cote d’Ivoire ‘A’.

With victories for Andre Bly and Cherif Gbane in the opening two encounters with Franck Kouadio (11-7, 5-11, 11-8, 11-7) and Nomel Sie (11-3, 3-11, 11-8, 11-8) all appeared to be going as planned for Cote d’Ivoire ‘B’ but the opposition hit back through Franck Kouadio, who made up for his opening defeat with a solid display in his rematch with Andre Bly (11-9, 11-8, 11-8). However, Andre Bly went on to hand the no.3 seeded team the win, prevailing over Nomel Sie across four games (9-11, 13-11, 11-9, 11-7).

Egypt successfully negotiated both of its matches in commanding style, as Cote d’Ivoire ‘A’ and Cote d’Ivoire ‘C’ fell to 3-0 defeats.

Ahmed Elborhamy conceded one game throughout the course of the day with Nomel Sie proving slightly troublesome for the Egyptian in his opening fixture of the Junior Boys’ Team event (11-7, 11-6, 9-11, 11-4) while Youssef Abdel-Aziz’s also dropped just the one game courtesy of his encounter against Bi Cedric Zaouli (11-5, 11-1, 12-14, 11-4).