by Ian Marshall, Editor

Frenchman Vincent Picard and Myshaal Sabhi, alongside India’s Payas Jain, Deepit Patil and Akash Pal secured first places in their respective groups, as did Nikola Mihailovic of Belarus, Egypt’s Ziad Elshawa and Slovakia’s Filip Delincak.

However, lower down the order for three players who started the day as the highest rated in their respective groups, there were defeats; the salvation being that it was their only defeat, thus second place in the group and progress to the main draw was secured.

Jordan’s Raed Aldmaisy lost to Egypt’s Badr Mostafa (11-9, 7-11, 11-9, 11-8), a fate that was also the lot of Saudi Arabia’s Nawaf Altaher and Kalid Alshareif. Nawaf Altaher was beaten by Syria’s Obaida Zaza (11-8, 10-12, 11-9, 12-10), Kalid Alshareif experienced defeat at the hands of Russia’s Alexey Perfilyev (11-7, 5-11, 10-12, 11-5, 11-9).

Badr Mostafa, Obaida Zaza and Alexey Perfilyev all remained unbeaten to secure first places in their respective groups.

Meanwhile, in the cadet boys’ singles, an event in which all players compete in the group stage, India’s Payas Jain and the Czech Republic’s Simon Belik, the respective top two names, duly completed their itinerary of matches in first place; for the next on the list there is still work to be completed.

Notably with one match yet to play, Iran’s Navid Shams and Kalid Alshareif both remain unbeaten.

Play in Manama concludes on Monday 11th February.