Paris Squash – Day Two: Afternoon Round-up

French No.1 Victor Crouin kicked off his Paris Squash 2023 campaign with a 3-0 victory over Yahya Elnawasany.

Crouin, who tasted success on home soil last season after capturing the Open de France de Squash Open, was being tested by the young Egyptian whose movement and accuracy was troubling the Frenchman.

However Crouin came out on top in the first 11-7 before doubling his lead in the second with an 11-9 win. Errors from Elanwasany’s racket began to creep in as Crouin began to capitalise with his accuracy.

Despite a long match yesterday for Elanwasany, the 21-year-old battled back to run Crouin close, but the French No.1 closed the match out with an 11-9 success.

“It feels great to be here and feels great to win today. That was the main objective coming into today’s match: just win it and see afterwards what I need to do to improve for the next round,” Crouin said afterwards.

“It wasn’t easy. Yahya [Elnawasany] and I have never played each other before. I did some analysis and I knew he was a fighter, he’s been playing well and he won against Gregoire [Marche] and Abdulla Al Tamimi in Canada so I knew it was going to be a tough one. It’s good to win in three even if it was a close one.

“It feels amazing [playing in Paris]. I’m from the south of France so I’ve not had the chance to play in Paris all that often in my junior career. It’s cool to be here in front of the Eiffel Tower – I just want to be here for as long as I can. My friends and family are here to support me and I just want to enjoy it as much as I did last year in Nantes.”

World No.1 Nouran Gohar comprehensively secured her round three spot with a dominant straight games triumph over Chan Sin Yuk, while Diego Elias also cruised his way unto the next round by beating Shahjahan Khan 3-0.

New Zealand No.1 Joelle King also notched a 3-0 victory in her opening match of the tournament, seeing off England’s Sarah-Jane Perry.

“I think the first and the second were quite important,” said King on court post-match.

“SJ and I have played for so long ever since we were juniors. On paper her ranking has dropped but she is such a tough competitor. We call her the gladiator because she never says die and always gives it 100 per cent. I’m very happy to come through a tough first round like this.

“It’s only my second time in Paris, I think I’ve spent all the prize money that I’m going to take home. It’s such a beautiful city and I think all the players are absolutely grateful to the team for bringing us here to show out beautiful sport to the people of Paris.

“As you get older you’ve got to change things. My goals now are very different to when I was 25 or younger. I was chasing rankings, but for the rest of my career it’s about trying to get the best out of myself and seeing how long I can keep competing at the top.

“I turn 35 next month, so I’m officially entering masters territory. I hope I can keep playing for as long as my body will let me. The biggest thing is your mind, that’s why I needed to find something different and change.

“It’s a good group of boys that make me work hard every day, so I’m really enjoying a bit of a change.”

At the Sportive du Jeu de Paume, Frenchman Auguste Dussourd overturned a 2-0 deficit to overcome Iker Pajares Bernabeu 3-2.

Spain’s Pajares edged the first two games 12-10 in the tiebreak before Dussourd battled back with 11-6 and 11-9 wins in the ensuing games.

Dussourd, who also won in five games yesterday, emphatically took the decider 11-1 to continue his run in the tournament.

“I don’t know if I’ve beaten him [Iker Pajares Bernabeu] before in my career, but we always play close battles between us and we’ve been playing each other since juniors so we know each other well,” said Dussourd.

“Today was a mental and physical battle. In the first game I was 10-6 up and he came back, he won the game and I was already down mentally and I was thinking it’s happening again. He won the second game 12-10 again, so I was two games down after two tiebreaks.

“I was fighting to get back to within a chance of playing on the glass court again in Paris, so I had to change some things tactically and in the third one I was attacking well, I was more offensive and he was maybe surprised. In the fourth, again, it was a big battle and we went to nine-all, I was 7-4 down at the time and this time I won the game and got back to two-all and this time I was feeling good.

“I did a big push at the start of the fifth and he was starting to break physically, he was tired. I got the advantage and I didn’t let him come back so I’m really happy to get through and get back on the glass court in Paris.”

Salma Hany, Hana Ramadan and Adrian Waller secured their round three spots following 3-0 victories against Ka Yi Lee, Katie Malliff and Timothy Brownell, respectively.

Mazen Hesham avoided a shock defeat to Karim El Hammamy after the World No.7 came from 2-1 down to defeat his Egyptian compatriot.

After drawing first blood, Hesham lost the second and third games 11-7 and 11-9 to put El Hammamy in the driving seat.

However Hesham responded with an 11-5 success in the fourth before taking the decider 11-1 to move into the next round.

Olivia Fiechter also required five games for a third round berth, edging past Nada Abbas, Farida Mohamed and Tarek Momen came from one game down to overcome Emily Whitlock and Mohamed Abouelghar, respectively.

Lucy Beecroft held off a fightback from Hollie Naughton to prevail at Stade Francais, while Nour El Tayeb also went the distance with Lucy Turmel to advance to round three. Miguel Rodriguez and Leonel Cardenas notched 3-0 victories.

Results: Paris Squash 2023 – Round Two

Sportive du Jeu de Paume

Salma Hany (EGY) bt Ka Yi Lee (HKG) 3-0: 11-6, 11-5, 11-6 (28m)
Auguste Dussourd (FRA) bt Iker Pajares Bernabeu (ESP) 3-2: 10-12, 10-12, 11-6, 11-9, 11-1 (75m)
Hana Ramadan (EGY) bt Katie Malliff (ENG) 3-0: 11-8, 13-11, 11-5 (33m)
Adrian Waller (ENG) bt Timothy Brownell (USA) 3-0: 11-4, 14-12, 11-9 (45m)

Squash Montmartre

Olivia Fiechter (USA) bt Nada Abbas (EGY) 3-2: 11-2, 8-11, 7-11, 12-10, 12-10 (66m)
[6] Mazen Hesham (EGY) bt Karim El Hammamy (EGY) 3-2: 11-5, 7-11, 9-11, 11-5, 11-1 (72m)
Farida Mohamed (EGY) bt Emily Whitlock (WAL) 3-1: 8-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-3 (38m)
[8] Tarek Momen (EGY) bt Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY) 3-1: 9-11, 11-8, 11-5, 13-11 (61m)

Stade Francais

Lucy Beecroft (ENG) bt Hollie Naughton (CAN) 3-2: 11-7, 11-7, 8-11, 11-13, 11-3 (51m)
Miguel Rodriguez (COL) bt Aly Abou Eleinen (EGY) 3-0: 11-4, 11-3, 11-9 (54m)
[5] Nour El Tayeb (EGY) bt Lucy Turmel (ENG) 3-2: 11-7, 8-11, 11-3, 8-11, 11-8 (62m)
Leonel Cardenas (MEX) bt Sebastien Bonmalais (FRA) 3-0: 11-7, 11-2, 11-5 (40m)

Parvis du Palais de Tokyo

[1] Nouran Gohar (EGY) bt Chan Sin Yuk (HKG) 3-0: 11-3, 11-2, 11-3 (22m)
[7] Victor Crouin (FRA) bt Yahya Elnawasany (EGY) 3-0: 11-7, 11-9, 11-9 (44m)
[4] Joelle King (NZL) bt Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG) 3-0: 13-11, 16-14, 11-7 (40m)
[2] Diego Elias (PER) bt Shahjahan Khan (USA) 3-0: 11-4, 11-7, 11-2 (39m)