Le Ber suffers in Hong Kong

MATT LE BER is suffering in Hong Kong. The curse of the best of two sets format struck another Guern-sey player at the Hong Kong Football Club when he won his first set at the gallop, but was pipped in the second, before losing on the third end of the tiebreak.

His opponent, Melvin Tan, from Singapore, actually scored 13 shots to Le Ber's 17 over the whole match, but stole the points.

Tan, who beat Guernsey's Craig Dorey in last year's event, is a much improved player, as his opening wins over Aussie Jesse Mackenzie and Kiwi Shannon McIlroy demonstrate - though this was little compensation for the Sarnian, who deserved to win.

Worse was to come after lunch when Lee Ka Ho, from Hong Kong, accounted for the Guernsey star in straight sets 8-4, 13-4, allowing little room for any argument of injustice.

Yesterday was another hard day at the office for Guernsey's young representative who suffered two more defeats, against Canadian Steve Santana and Scot Andy Duncan.

Hoping for another win to add to his first-day victory over Fijian Lemu Matailevu, Le Ber faced an in-form Santana and lost in straight sets, before coming up against the league leader, Andy Duncan from Kintore in Aberdeenshire.

The Sarnian clearly had the Scot worried when he won the opening set 9-6 and the second set was a cracker, in which Le Ber was hoping for a tie.

Sadly for the Guernsey player, Duncan edged it by one shot at 7-6 and took advantage of the format by mopping up 2-0 in the best-of-three-ends tiebreak.

Today, Le Ber has been drawn to play Kiwi Shannon McIlroy and Ronald Lising from the Philippines.

A win against either or those would lift his spirits and his position in the league table.