Bremer Schlüssel Day 2: Damming Stages Fightback after Blood Drama for Solnicky

Rowan Damming staged a thrilling fightback to reach the Bremer Schlüssel quarter-finals, beating Egypt’s Seif Tamer 3-2 in 75 minutes of tension-filled action. 

Left-handed Tamer started the season outside the world’s top 200, but has risen to 136 with some impressive results, bringing him just 11 places shy of where Damming currently sits. 

The young Dutchman – world junior champion two years ago – came into this match on the back of lifting the trophy in his last event, the Trident Homes South Island Open, but was stunned early on, as Tamer raced into a 6-0 lead in game one. 

Damming slowly clawed his way back into the game but had left himself too much to do, losing it 11-9, and then saw three game balls of his own come and go in the second, as Tamer turned a 10-8 deficit into a 13-11 win. 

A hard-fought third game followed, with Damming taking it 11-9 having seen Tamer fight back from 8-4 down to 8-8, and the fourth was even closer, with the players never once separated by more than two points. 

Once again, though, it was Damming who came out on top, and once again by an 11-9 scoreline, setting up a mouthwatering decider as the match clock ticked past the hour. 

With everything on the line and little margin for error, tensions rose as contact between the players became more frequent, but so did the levels of commitment. 

Damming had already taken flight with a number of acrobatic dives throughout the match, but even the long-limbed Tamer – all 6ft 4 of him – pulled out a dive towards the end. 

The referee was heavily involved throughout the final game as well, so it was perhaps little surprise that the match ended on a stroke, with Damming letting out a huge roar of emotion as the decision was made on match ball. 

That 74-minute thriller was the second consecutive five-game epic on the day, following a dramatic conclusion to Hazem Hossam’s win over seventh seed Jakub Solnicky. 

The two players had already traded blows for more than an hour in going to a fifth game, with the young Egyptian winning games one and three, and Solnicky two and four. 

The real drama occurred at 9-8 in game five, though, as Hossam caught Solnicky above the eye with his follow through, drawing blood from the Czech player’s face.

Despite protests from the No.7 seed, a no-let was given, with the referee adjudicating that he’d moved too close to Hossam’s swing, handing the Egyptian two match balls. 

He would be made to wait for victory, with Solnicky taking a 20-minute injury break to get his cut patched up, and he did win the next point upon his return. 

But saving a second match ball would prove to be a step too far, as Hossam closed out victory 11-9, 95 minutes after the match had begun. 

The 21-year-old will now play fellow Egyptian and No.1 seed Ibrahim Elkabbani, who saw off the dangerous threat of Rhys Evans. 

The young Welshman has had an impressive season to date, and went toe-to-toe with the World No.61 throughout each of the three games, but fell short in the closing stages each time. 

There were also wins for third seed Yassin Elshafei, fourth seed Alejandro Enriquez and fifth seed Owain Taylor, though sixth seed Mohamed Nasser was knocked out, losing 3-1 to compatriot Khaled Labib. 

Second seed Mazen Gamal was given a walkover due to Elliott Morris Devred’s injury. 

The quarter-finals get underway at 3:45pm local time (2:45pm BST) on Thursday, July 25^th, streaming live on the SQUASHTV Live Streaming YouTube channel. 

Results: Round Two 
[5] Owain Taylor (WAL) bt Omar El Torkey (EGY) 3-1: 7-11, 11-1, 11-6, 15-13 (46m) 
Khaled Labib (EGY) bt [6] Mohamed Nasser (EGY) 3-0: 11-9, 11-7, 11-9 (48m) 
Hazem Hossam (EGY) bt [7] Jakub Solnicky (CZE) 3-2: 11-7, 9-11, 11-6, 3-11, 11-9 (95m) 
[8] Rowan Damming (NED) bt Seif Tamer (EGY) 3-2: 9-11, 11-13, 11-9, 11-9, 11-9 (74m) 
[3] Yassin Elshafei (EGY) bt Joeri Hapers (BEL) 3-0: 11-2, 11-7, 11-4 (22m) 
[4] Alejandro Enriquez (GUA) bt Ondrej Vorlícek (CZE) 3-0: 11-3, 11-9, 11-6 (30m) 
[1] Ibrahim Elkabbani (EGY) bt Rhys Evans (WAL) 3-0: 11-8, 11-9, 11-8 (39m) 
[2] Mazen Gamal (EGY) bt Elliott Morris Devred (WAL) 3-0: Walkover