Challenger Events Round-Up: Eghtedari Makes History for Iran; Bouin, Osborne-Wylde, Ibrahim & Groenewald All Claim Maiden Tour Titles

II SPAC Open 2024  

Colombia’s Lucia Bautista avenged her defeat to Hannah Craig from a week ago, winning a five-game thriller to claim the II SPAC Open women’s title, while fellow Colombian Ronald Palomino won the men’s event. 

Craig and Bautista had gone to five seven days earlier in the Paraguay Open final, with the Irish No.1 coming out on top to claim her first PSA Tour title, and they once again went toe-to-toe with a trophy on the line here. 

Both players had beaten rising stars of South American squash in the semi-finals, getting past 16-year-old duo Fiorella Gatti and Laura Silva respectively, setting up a mouthwatering final at the SPAC in Sao Paulo. 

Those watching on, hoping to see another well-matched encounter similar to last week’s final were in for a treat, as the two players – separated by just seven spots in the rankings – battled it out over almost an hour. 

Bautista took the first 11-9 before Craig levelled in the second, winning it 11-8, the only game that was won by more than two points. 

The 25-year-old then took a third-game tiebreak 12-10 to move within one game of glory, but Bautista fought back from the brink, overturning a 9-7 deficit in game four to force a decider. 

Unsurprisingly, that decider would go right down to the wire, with the match on a knife edge at 9-9, but – after three let decisions in the next five rallies – the Colombian got over the line, letting out a huge roar of emotion as Craig failed to return a backhand on match ball. 

That result brought the Brazilian crowd – supporting their fellow South American – to their feet, and they were soon celebrating another Colombian win in the men’s event, albeit in much less dramatic circumstances. 

Bautista’s win had guaranteed a Colombian double, with compatriots Edgar Ramirez Bautista and Palomino contesting the men’s final, but it would be a short-lived final in the end. 

After just seven minutes of play and Palomino sitting 10-1 up in the first, Bautista shook hands and retired, handing the No.2 seed his seventh PSA Tour title, and his fourth in the last 12 months. 

1er Open International SKODA – XO CONSEIL Quimper 2024 

Baptise Bouin claimed his first PSA Tour title with victory in an all-French final at the 1er Open International SKODA – XO CONSEIL Quimper. 

The 3k event was the first stop on this year’s Green Squash Tour, and featured plenty of home interest with 10 French players in the field, Bouin among them as the No.5 seed. 

Also among them was 16-year-old rising star Amir Khaled-Jousselin, who was aiming to become the youngest European male ever to win a PSA Tour title, and he certainly made his mark by knocking out No.1 seed Rhys Evans in round two. 

His run would end at the semi-final stage, though, going down 3-0 to Bouin, whose win over the teenager set up a final against No.8 seed Manuel Paquemar. 

Paquemar had fought back from 2-0 down to beat Will Salter in the last eight, before coming through another five-game tussle with Sebastiaan Hofman in the semis, setting up a first ever PSA Tour meeting with Bouin. 

But the 21-year-old Bouin, who lives just a couple of hundred miles from Quimper in La Rochelle, proved too strong for his opponent on finals day, winning 11-3, 11-8, 11-5 in 35 minutes to claim glory. 

Schräglage Squash Open 2024 presented by MySunnySmile 

Amina El Rihany and Ziad Ibrahim completed an Egyptian double at the Schräglage Squash Open presented by MySunnySmile, beating Alison Thomson and Dewald van Niekerk respectively on finals day. 

El Rihany and Thomson – seeded No.2 and No.3 respectively – were the highest-seeded players left in the draw after day two, following Lea Barbeau’s stunning comeback win over top seed Menna Walid. 

Barbeau backed that win up with victory over Breanne Flynn in the quarter-finals, but fell short of a spot in the final, going down 3-0 to Scotland’s Thomson in the semi-finals. 

El Rihany, meanwhile, did not drop a game all week and continued that record in Sunday’s final, needing just 31 minutes to win 11-5, 11-8, 11-6. 

That victory marked her third PSA Tour title, and was followed by a 3-0 win for Ibrahim in the men’s final. 

In contrast to El Rihany, Ibrahim was unseeded for this event and thus needed to come through four matches to reach the final. 

Among them was a hard-fought 3-1 win over Sam Buckley in the quarter-finals, followed by victory by the same scoreline over lefty James Peach in the semis. 

Standing in his way on finals day was Dewald van Nierkerk, who was targeting his second title of the young season.  

The South African had, however, come through an epic semi-final against Mazen Gamal, winning at 13-11 in the fifth after 83 minutes of play, and perhaps that took its toll in the final, particularly as the match wore on. 

Game one was a back-and-forth encounter, with Ibrahim going 3-2 up and then 8-5 down, but he eventually closed it out at the third time of asking, taking a tiebreak 12-10. 

That game last 17 minutes, taking van Nierkerk’s playing time across the last two days of competition up to 100 minutes, and Ibrahim took advantage, winning game two 11-5 and then cruising through game three 11-2, winning 17 of the last 20 rallies in the match. 

The title is Ibrahim’s first on the PSA Tour in his fourth final. 

Joburg Open 2024 

Fereshteh Eghtedari made history at the Joburg Open, becoming the first ever Iranian woman to win a PSA Tour title. 

The 24-year-old – ranked at World No.400 going into the week and playing in just her second ever PSA Tour event – was the only player from outside of South Africa playing in the women’s draw, but defied both her ranking and home advantage to reach the final. 

Her route included a 3-2 comeback win over top seed Hayley Ward in the quarter-finals alongside comfortable victories over Bianke Pienaar and Teagan Leigh Russell either side, setting up a final showdown with No.2 seed Alexa Pienaar. 

The experienced South African, who has a career-high ranking inside the world’s top 100, was appearing in her first Tour final but was outplayed by Eghtedari, who cruised to an 11-5, 11-4, 11-4 win in just 27 minutes. 

There was, however, home glory in the men’s draw, as Damian Groenewald won an all-South African matchup with third seed Ruan Olivier. 

30-year-old Olivier is 10 years his opponent’s senior and was playing in his hometown of Johannesburg, and staged an impressive fightback to level the score at 2-2 after losing the first two games. 

Groenewald, though, would come through in the decider, taking it 11-7 to get his hands on his first PSA Tour trophy, and one of the biggest trophies on Tour at that. 

Stourbridge Open 2024 

Samuel Osborne-Wylde completed an utterly dominant week at the Stourbridge Open, beating Noah Meredith in Sunday’s final to win his first PSA Tour title. 

The 20-year-old – a member of England’s victorious men’s team at the WSF World Junior Squash Championships in 2022 – was competing as the No.3 seed, and sauntered into the final without coming close to dropping a game, not losing more than four points in any of the nine he played. 

That set up a meeting with Noah Meredith with the trophy on the line, and while the 23-year-old did give Osborne-Wylde his toughest test of the week, he was only really threatened in game two, needing to overturn a 9-8 deficit to take it 11-9. 

That game aside, he looked comfortable throughout, winning game one 11-6 and game three 11-5, ending his run of three straight PSA Tour finals without a win. 

He will now hope to use this victory as a springboard for success in the same way as last year’s champion Jonah Bryant did. Bryant won his maiden PSA Tour title at this event 12 months ago and has gone on to win a further six, including the World-level Budapest Open last week.