CIB Egyptian Open Day Three Afternoon Roundup: Momen Through In Controversial Clash

We’re halfway through day three of the CIB Egyptian Open, with four matches taking place on the traditional courts of Club O West, Cairo ahead of the evening session on the all-glass show court.

In the first men’s match of the day, Tarek Momen overcame Egyptian compatriot Fares Dessouky in a close encounter that was brought to an early conclusion after Dessouky was penalised with a conduct game in game five.

Momen went into the clash with form on his side, having won all three of their matches last season, with the last of those a 3-0 win in the semi-final of QSF No.4.

Things looked to be going smoothly for the No.7 seed, with Momen taking the lead in the physical encounter with a pair of 11-9 wins.

The 2019 world champion began game three well, and appeared to have one foot in the quarter-final after opening up a 9-6 lead, only for the determined Dessouky to wrestle his way into the contest with a tie-break 12-10 win.

Dessouky then forced a fifth game with another hard-fought win, taking game four by the same scoreline to level the contest.

Throughout the encounter, match referee Roy Gingell had warned both players of the importance of following WSO directives on communication and dissent, with Dessouky receiving conduct warning and strokes for attempts to influence the referee’s decision.

With emotions at boiling point at 8-8 in game five, Dessouky argued a ‘Yes Let’ decision, with the match referee then awarding a conduct game against the former World No.7 for repeated attempts to influence a decision.

That victory for Momen sees the 36-year-old into the last eight of the Egyptian Open for the fourth consecutive time.

After the match, Momen declined to comment on the decision, focusing instead on the positives of his own performance and result: “This was a brutal mental test for me. 

“As you know, it’s only the beginning of the season, the first two matches of the season. I had two tricky customers [Leonel Cardenas yesterday], and against Fares today, as you saw, it was not not a clear cut or free-flowing. It was very challenging mentally before anything else.

“I thought I did pretty well handling all this as the beginning of the season. Usually, when you just come off summer vacation, and you are put into a test like this, sometimes you are not able to [stay focused].

“I managed to keep my focus, keep pushing until the end, thankfully, I got the result, that’s all I needed from today.”

Joining Momen in the quarter-final is No.5 seed Mazen Hesham, who came back from a game down to beat fellow Egyptian Aly Abou Eleinen.

Hesham struggled early on, with the ever-energetic Eleinen covering every inch of court en route to an 11-3 win to set alarm bells ringing for the World No.5.

Hesham, though, then found another gear, with his famed court-craft matching a surge of energy usually associated with his opponent, as Hesham hunted every ball into all four corners.

This counter attack worked wonders for the 30-year-old and he soon began to rack up points in quick succession, chalking off Eleinen’s lead with a 11-8 win in game two, pulling ahead with an 11-5 win in game three and then completing the comeback with an 11-9 win in game four.

Afterwards, Hesham said: “In the first game, I was overthinking, I was a bit nervous, didn’t feel right, a bit heavy… just nerves. I was expecting it, so I had to bottle them in the second. Told myself ‘you know what, if you play like this, you are going to lose for sure’.

“Last time, he beat me in El Gouna, it was the end of the season, I was really tired but no excuse. I know how good he is, that’s why you can see me pumping myself now and then, what a fighter he is, he has a great fighting spirit as well, so you cannot leave anything to him, you have to do it yourself. 

“You can see your engine going, getting more balls, finding better shots, getting more accurate, things like that, which started to hurt him.

“In the last game, I started overthinking again, just wanted to finish too quickly, while he went for shots. I did a few errors in the latter part of the game. 

“Overall, I should be proud of myself. Nothing is never perfect. I’m always looking for perfection. I want to change the way I play, I want to be more aggressive, more solid, more patient, more fit.. I would like to be someone else, like 50 percent Mazen, 50 percent someone else, it would help.

“I get angry when I make a single mistake, I don’t want to make any, that’s the way I play the game. You see the last shot I played, that’s the way I want to play the game, sometimes I get overboard, sometimes I get underboard.

“I’m very glad to manage to beat him today, trying to get one back from him. He is going to beat me at some point A LOT, so I’m trying to get as many wins as I can get now, and see how it goes from here.”

In the women’s event, England’s Georgina Kennedy and Belgium’s Tinne Gilis progressed after wins over Lucy Turmel and Fayrouz Aboelkheir, respectively.

In the first match of the day, Kennedy took down Turmel in a high-quality all-English affair.

Kennedy’s preparation for today had been less than ideal, with the No.5 seed yet to play a competitive match due to her scheduled opponent yesterday, France’s Melissa Alves, withdrawing with an injury hours before their clash.

The World No.6 showed some signs of rust early on, with the impressive Turmel – who beat Kenzy Ayman and Nadine Shahin in rounds one and two – causing a number of problems with her variation.

After saving three game balls to clinch the opener 16-14, Kennedy was pegged back 6-11 in game two.

The England No.1, though, is known for her toughness and, despite Turmel continuing to impress, Kennedy was able to regain the advantage with another tie-break win in game three before closing out 11-4 in game four.

Afterwards, Kennedy said: “I was really nervous when I woke up and I knew during the knock up that I was flat. I think because I’d spent so much energy being anxious. I felt very flat out there which means my movement goes all over the place.

“I can still my scrap my way through it but she was controlling me pretty much the entire match until that fourth game.”

Gillis, meanwhile, came through three challenging games against Egypt’s Aboelkheir. Gilis, who had previously never reached the last eight of the Egyptian Open, was tested to the limit by the 18-year-old in a match that was far closer than suggested by the 3-0 scoreline.

In a stop-start first game, Gilis edged ahead with an 11-8 win.

Aboelkheir was on top for much of the second game, leading at 6-4 and going game ball up at 11-10. The Egyptian, however, could not convert, with Gilis moving into a 2-0 lead after taking the second game 13-11.

The final game was another that was played on a knife-edge, with both players squandering game ball opportunities. Eventually, though, Gilis was able to break through the deadlock, edging it 16-14 to seal her progress.

Afterwards, Gilis said: “I was expecting a bad match, as all the matches I played with her were pretty terrible. And I’m not saying it’s all on her, it’s also because the quality is not good because of the situation.

“So I knew it was going to happen at same point. I knew that if there was a lot of traffic issues, a lot of discussions with the ref, I would have to play a tighter squash, putting the ball far away from her as much as possible.

Towards the end, it got a bit better, although it was messy at half-way. It’s so hard to focus throughout the whole match when there are a lot of stops and starts.”

Results: 2024 CIB Egyptian Open Women’s Round Three (Afternoon Session One)
[5] Georgina Kennedy (ENG) bt Lucy Turmel (ENG) 3-1: 16-14, 6-11, 13-11, 11-4 (51m)
[6] Tinne Gilis (BEL) bt Fayrouz Aboelkheir (EGY) 3-0: 11-8, 13-11, 16-14 (36m)

Results: 2024 CIB Egyptian Open Men’s Round Three (Afternoon Session One)
[7] Tarek Momen (EGY) bt Fares Dessouky (EGY) 3-2: 11-9, 11-9, 10-12, 10-12, 11-8 (82m)
[5] Mazen Hesham (EGY) bt Aly Abou Eleinen (EGY) 3-1: 3-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-9 (48m)

The evening session of day three of the CIB Egyptian Open is live on SQUASHTV at 19:00 (GMT+3). For more information on the CIB Egyptian Open 2024, follow the PSA on X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.