Windsor Cup: Wildcard Salah Eltorgman Shocks Soares

The first PSA World Tour event of the new season got underway yesterday as the Windsor Cup Bronze event opened the new season in Canada. The home crowd were treated to a win from event wildcard Salah Eltorgman, who defeated Portugal’s World No.56 Rui Soares to earn his first World Tour win and move into round two.

Eltorgman is currently ranked No.190 on the PSA rankings, but showed no signs of that ranking deficit as he attacked Soares from the outset. The Canadian ran out to a 7-2 lead in the first game, taking time away from Soares and capitalising on the higher seed’s potential rust, given the first match of his season. Soares came back strongly but as the game reached a tie-break, it was the wildcard who converted 13-11.

The Portuguese player used the momentum gained at the back end of game one to find his rhythm in the following game as he took both the second and third games 11-9 to move ahead in the match and quieten the home crowd. The inspired wildcard was far from finished however and regrouped in impressive style to regain his attacking abilities and draw level in games as he took the fourth 11-6. The Canadian started the deciding game strongly as he lead 4-1, he held a lead all the way through the fifth game and earned the first match ball at 10-9, he converted first time to score a huge win for him and book his place in round two, where he will face No.2 seed Youssef Soliman.

There were two other seedings upsets in round one as Colombia’s Juan Camilo Vargas and USA’s Andrew Douglas scored wins to advance. Vargas overcame Scotland’s Rory Stewart, whilst Douglas defeated Argentina’s Leandro Romiglio, both in straight games. Vargas now faces ‘Hammer of Thor’ Omar Mosaad whilst Douglas will be up against Mexico’s Leonel Cardenas.

Hungary’s Balázs Farkas avoided a shock as he narrowly defeated England’s last minute entry Simon Herbert in five games. The Englishman lead Farkas 2-1 after winning the third game 11-9. The Hungarian didn’t panic however, such is his nature on court and was comfortable in the following two games, winning 11-7, 11-5 to advance through to the second round, where he will now face Scotland’s No.8 seed Greg Lobban.

There were also wins for USA’s Todd Harrity, Egypt;s Yahya Elnawasany, Mexico’s Cesar Salazar and Hong Kong’s Henry Leung who all needed less than 40 minutes book their round two places in the opening World Tour event of the season.

You can watch the second round live here.

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Results: Windsor Cup 2023 – Round one
[9/16] Todd Harrity (USA) bt Ryunosuke Tsukue (JPN) 3-1: 11-3, 11-5, 6-11, 11-4 (32m)
Juan Camilo Vargas (COL) bt [9/16] Rory Stewart (SCO) 3-0: 11-4, 13-11, 11-7 (43m)
[9/16] Balázs Farkas (HUN) bt Simon Herbert (ENG) 3-2: 8-11, 11-4, 9-11, 11-7, 11-5 (49m)
[9/16] Henry Leung (HKG) bt [WC] Amin Khan (CAN) 3-0: 12-10, 11-4, 11-8 (30m)
[9/16] Cesar Salazar (MEX) bt Bernat Jaume (ESP) 3-0: 13-11, 11-8, 11-5 (45m)
[9/16] Yahya Elnawasany (EGY) bt Martin Svec (CZE) 3-1: 11-5, 11-13, 11-3, 11-1 (39m)
Andrew Douglas (USA) bt [9/16] Leandro Romiglio (ARG) 3-0: 11-9, 11-1, 11-5 (27m)
[WC] Salah Eltorgman (CAN) bt [9/16] Rui Soares (POR) 3-2: 13-11, 9-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9 (73m)

Draw: Windsor Cup – Round two
[1] Tarek Momen (EGY) v [9/16] Todd Harrity (USA)
[6] Omar Mosaad (EGY) v Juan Camilo Vargas (COL)
[8] Greg Lobban (SCO) v [9/16] Balázs Farkas (HUN)
[3] Mohamed ElSherbini (EGY) v [9/16] Henry Leung (HKG)
[4] Grégoire Marche (FRA) v [9/16] Cesar Salazar (MEX)
[7] Abdulla Al-Tamimi (QAT) v [9/16] Yahya Elnawasany (EGY)
[5] Leonel Cardenas (MEX) v Andrew Douglas (USA)
[2] Youssef Soliman (EGY) v [WC] Salah Eltorgman (CAN)