City Tattersalls Group Australian Open 2024 Semi Final: Soliman To Face Top Seed Crouin In Men’s Decider

No.2 seed Youssef Soliman will meet the top seed Victor Crouin in the men’s final tomorrow evening following an accomplished semi final victory over Sebastien Bonmalais.

Soliman has been solid all week in Sydney, and the World No.12 hasn’t dropped a game yet in each of the three rounds he’s featured in so far.

The Egyptian looked comfortable on court against Bonmalais, and he was in complete control as he converted his five game balls at the first time of asking in the first.

Soliman carried his momentum through to the second where he looked to be cruising into a two-game lead with three game balls. However he squandered all three as Bonmalais’ tenacity was rewarded with a tiebreak and a game ball of his own.

Bonmalais, featuring in his first semi final on the PSA World Tour, was unable to capitalise as he hit the tin, as Soliman made it fourth time lucky to double his advantage.

Plenty of work was being put into the legs of Bonmalais by Soliman, who saw his four-point lead pegged back to 4-4 before Bonmalais appeared to have injured his ankle.

After returning to the court after a three-minute break, Soliman closed the match out with Bonmalais not 100 per cent.

“It was a 3-0 win and what happened in the third was very unfortunate,” he said.

“I forgot what the score was but it was pretty close, it was a close match and I’m very glad with how I managed the first two games. It was very unfortunate when this incident happened [Bonmalais’ injury] and I’m happy to be through.

“Seb is such a fighter, he was fighting back, trying to inject the pace and tried to make it physical. I was very happy to get this game done. I was leading and he fought back, but I’m glad with the way I managed the tiebreak.”

Result
[2] Youssef Soliman (EGY) bt [3] Sebastien Bonmalais (FRA) 3-0: 11-5, 13-11, 11-4 (43m)