Challenger Tour Round-Up: Cepová Battles Back to Beat Barbeau, El Torkey and Khawas Through in Hinckley

The Bee-Clean Edmonton Squash Club Women’s Open 2024 

Michaela Cepová staged an impressive fightback to reach the quarter-finals of The Bee-Clean Edmonton Squash Club Women’s Open, overturning a two-game deficit to beat France’s Lea Barbeau. 

The 23-year-old Czech player is competing in just her third PSA Tour event of the season, having not played on tour since 2020 before last year’s Czech Open, but is already making her mark on her return to action.

She won the Brno Open a few weeks ago and is now into the last eight of this 9K in Edmonton, having beaten Barbeau 7-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-7 in 44 minutes. 

Her opponent in the quarter-finals will be Ireland’s Hannah Craig, who was one of six seeds to progress on day two, beating Ana Munos of France, with Switzerland’s Ambre Allinckx the only other seed, aside from Barbeau, to lose on day two. 

Allinckx was beaten 3-0 by 19-year-old Egyptian Salma Elalfy, who will now take on fellow Egyptian Nour Heikal for a place in the semi-finals. 

The Aldi Hinckley Challenger 2024 

Unseeded Egyptian duo Omar El Torkey and Ali Khawas reached The Aldi Hinckley Challenger quarter-finals, on a busy opening day at the Hinckley Squash and Racketball Club. 

Both rounds one and two were played on day one, with World No.238 El Torkey – a student at Nottingham University – beating wildcard Alistair Mutch and then No.8 seed Paul Broadberry to set up a quarter-final matchup with second seed Joel Arscott. 

Khawas, meanwhile, came from behind to beat Stephen Hearst 3-1 in round one, before knocking out Australian sixth seed James Lloyd by the same scoreline. 

He will now take on top seed Hafiz Zhafri of Malaysia for a spot in the semi-finals, with Zhafri having beaten Pakistan’s Muhammad Farhan 3-0. 

The No.2, 3 and 4 seeds also recorded 3-0 wins in round two, as Arscott, Ronald Palomino and Rhys Evans beat Rory Richmond, Jamie Carmichael and Bailey Malik respectively. 

The action continues at The Aldi Hinckley Challenger from 5:30pm GMT today, streaming live on the SQUASHTV Live Streaming YouTube channel. 

You can stay up to date with all the results on the PSA Challenger Tour here.