Challenger Tour Round-Up: Elsirty Wins Thriller as Rodriguez Kicks off Quest for Glory; Lincou Through in Brussels

PSA Club Campestre De Cali

Moustafa Elsirty saved match ball on his way to a thrilling five-game win over Yannick Omlor, as Miguel Rodriguez made a winning start to his campaign on day two of the PSA Club Campestre De Cali. 

Colombia’s own Rodriguez – playing a PSA event on home soil for the first time since 2016 – was closing out the day’s play against compatriot Edgar Ramirez, and was pushed hard in each of the first two games, taking them both 11-9. 

He took controlled game three, though, quashing any hopes of an unlikely Ramirez comeback, winning it 11-5 with a crisp forehand kill on match ball. 

That result was greeted by healthy cheers from the crowd, who had watched fellow Colombians Andres Herrera and Matias Knudsen both go out earlier in the day, losing to Jeremias Azaña and Yahya Elnawasany respectively. 

Both Azaña and Elnawasany recorded 3-1 wins, as did England’s Tom Walsh and Guatemala’s Alejandro Enriquez, but the most dramatic encounter of round two came in the day’s second match, between Elsirty and Omlor. 

After splitting the first four games, the pair went toe-to-toe in a back-and-forth deciding game, in which the young Egyptian led 3-0 and then trailed 9-6. 

He then had to save match ball at 10-9 down, doing so with a deep forehand into the back-left corner, before back-to-back lets kept the score locked at 10-10. 

With the tension rising in the hot and humid conditions, Elsirty brought up match ball of his own on a controversial no-let, which left Omlor in disbelief, and the 22-year-old took his opportunity, ripping a backhand winner crosscourt to book his spot in the quarter-finals. 

Speaking after his win, Elsirty discussed the challenges of playing in such difficult conditions, with the humidity soaring north of 70%. 

“I’ve never played anywhere as humid as here,” he said. 

“I’ve played in some places where it’s hot. I’m from Egypt so it’s really sunny and hot, but with the humidity and also the altitude, it’s hard to play. 

“I came here nice and early to get used to the court, but it’s still so hard to handle such conditions. But we train for that, and we train to put ourselves in a position like what happened today and I’ve been training a lot for it, so I’m happy that it paid off.” 

Speaking on playing in such a tense deciding fifth, he added: “You get used to it because most of your life, you get put in positions where you have to fight for every point you play.  

“Obviously, we’re playing a 30K so everyone’s coming here not to mess around, everyone here is a good player, so you know you can have a tough match in round one.” 

Elsirty will play Mexico’s Alfredo Avila Vergara in the last eight, after an unusual win over fourth seed Faraz Khan. 

Vergara – who had to switch courts in his five-game win over Ronald Palomino in round one after the back glass wall shattered – recorded a bagel over Khan in game one, before losing the first point of game two. 

At that point, the American shook hands and conceded defeat, retiring after only five minutes of play. 

Action from the quarter-finals kicks off at 4pm local time (10pm BST) on Friday, June 14, streaming live on the SQUASHTV Live Streaming YouTube channel.

Investimax Brussels Open 2024

Seven of the eight seeds progressed through to the Investimax Brussels Open quarter-finals, with France’s Kara Lincou knocking out sixth seed Juliette Permentier in the only result to go against the seedings in round two.

Lincou reached the final of the Open Costa Brava Squash Project a few days ago, and is actually now ranked higher in the world than Permentier, so it was certainly no surprise when she beat the Dutch player 3-0 inside half an hour, despite being unseeded.

The young Frenchwoman will now play fourth seed Polly Clark, who also beat a Dutch player in round two, knocking out Megan van Drongelen 11-2, 12-10, 15-13.

Clark was one of three English players to reach day two, though top seed Kiera Marshall only did so after surviving a scare against Italy’s Cristina Tartarone.

Tartarone beat Lincou in the Open Costa Brava Squash Project final last week, and nearly caused a stunning upset against the top seed here in Brussels, taking a 2-1 lead.

Ultimately though, Marshall turned things around, winning games four and five 11-8, 11-9 to avoid an unwanted early exit.

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