Challenger Tour Round-Up: Almasoud Wins Maiden Title, Salem Stuns Top Seed Lovejoy

QSF 4 PSA 2024 

Kuwaiti veteran Mohammad Almasoud claimed his maiden PSA Tour title, beating Yousef Essam Farag in the QSF 4 PSA final. 

17 years separate the two players in age, with 36-year-old Almasoud hoping to deny the 19-year-old a title on home soil, but he fell behind early after losing game one 11-7. 

The No.5 seed drew level by winning the second but soon found himself on the back foot once more, losing the third 11-6 to give home favourite Farag a glimpse of glory. 

But a glimpse would be all he would get, as Almasoud took the next two games 11-7, 11-6 to get his hands on the trophy, his first on the PSA Challenger Tour.

Mozart Open 2024 

Top seed Saran Nghiem progressed safely through to the Mozart Open semi-finals on a one-sided day of action in Austria. 

The first two days of competition had seen upsets aplenty, but three of the four matches followed the seedings on day three, with Nghiem easing past France’s Kara Lincou 3-0 in the second match of the day. 

Second seed Alison Thomson and fourth seed Kiera Marshall also recorded 3-0 wins, but there was an upset in the day’s final match, an all-Czech affair between Michaela Cepová and Karolína Šrámková. 

17-year-old Šrámková is ranked 46 places above Cepová in the world and beat the 23-year-old to win this year’s Czech National Championships, but Cepová got her revenge this time around, winning 11-9, 11-7, 11-4 in 34 minutes. 

25th Atlanta Open 2024 

Wildcard Zahed Salem stunned top seed Spencer Lovejoy in round two of the 25th Atlanta Open, blowing the draw wide open. 

Lovejoy – the World No.67 – went into the event as the overwhelming favourite, being the only player inside the world’s top 90 in the draw. 

He quickly took game one 11-4, laying the platform for what many would have assumed would be a straight-forward win, but the 31-year-old Egyptian had other ideas. 

He took game two 11-9 and got better as the match went on from there, winning games three and four 11-7, 11-5 to book a spot in the quarter-finals, where he will play another American in Christoper Gordon. 

Fifth seed Gordon beat Nigeria’s Adegoke Onaopemipo, but the experienced American was one of only three seeds to progress on a day of upsets. 

The No.2 and 3 seeds, Alejandro Enriquez and Muhammad Ashab Irfan, both won 3-1, but fourth seed Dillon Huang, sixth seed David Costales and seventh seed Henrik Mustonen all joined Lovejoy in suffering an early exit, as did eigth seed Liam Marrison. 

Hong Kong Squash PSA Challenge Cup 2024 – 4th Leg 

Unseeded Malaysian teenager Joachim Chuah reached his second straight PSA Tour final, beating Andes Ling in the Hong Kong Squash PSA Challenge Cup 2024 – 4th Leg semi-finals. 

19-year-old Chuah finished as runner-up as a wildcard at the ACE Challenger 6K two weeks ago, but now has the chance to go one better in Hong Kong, after knocking out the No.5 seed 3-0 in half an hour. 

He will now play another home favourite in the form of seventh seed Harley Lam, who edged a five-game thriller against compatriot Lam Shing Fung, winning 11-9 in the fifth. 

The women’s final will also be Hong Kong versus Malaysia, with top seed Ching Hei Fung and third seed Sehveetrraa Kumar set to go head-to-head. 

Ching came from a game down to win her semi-final 3-1 against Thanusaa Uthrian, while Kumar beat Kwong Ena in a match that was far closer than the 3-0 scoreline suggests, with all three games separated by only two points. 

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