Crouin Hoping to Draw on Home Support at Paris Squash Event

Victor Crouin is hoping to draw on the inspiration of the French public to catapult himself to success at the Paris Squash Platinum season opener. 

The World No.8 has fond memories of playing in his home country, having secured the biggest title of his career when he beat Marwan ElShorbagy at the 2022 Open de France in Nantes. 

And now that France is hosting a first Platinum event in 29 years, the men’s French No.1 is looking forward to the chance of playing in front of his fans, friends and family. 

Crouin is set to face one of World No.34 Yahya Elnawasany or Mexican Cesar Salazar in the second round of the Paris Squash, which takes place between August 27 – September 2 and is also available to watch as the first SQUASHTV PSA event of the season.

On the impact of the home support, Crouin said: “I have had some success over the years competing in France, especially at the Bronze event in Nantes last season, which was the ultimate moment of my career so far. 

“I don’t think I exaggerate when I say that I have never felt such a flow of emotions while being on court. The atmosphere was electric and I could feel the crowd being so thrilled to be watching some squash that it elevated my level. 

“I felt a responsibility to perform well, and I was delighted to take on such a challenge. The crowd helped me transcend myself and I hope to be taking advantage of it again in Paris.”

Crouin enjoyed a breakthrough year in the 2022-2023 season, playing the most events out of all the players inside the top 50 but was still able to to keep his quality at a consistently high level. 

The 24-year-old featured in six finals, winning the Open de France, the Chicago Open and the Squash On Fire Open, whilst also moving into the world’s top 10 for the first time in his career. 

World No.8 Crouin will now be looking to defend his ranking points in the new season and maintain his position amongst the game’s elite. 

He said: “I have reflected a lot during the summer break about last season, and especially about the start of my season last year. On the one hand, I feel confident and ready to perform given the amount of training I did during the summer. 

“I feel healthy and strong physically, and I am looking forward to competing again. On the other hand, there are a lot of points I have to defend in order to stay where I am at ranking-wise and that’s something that could add a little bit of negative pressure. Having said that, I am not looking too far ahead. 

“My goal is to be performing well, one tournament at a time, one match after another. Each player is a different challenge, but if I perform well, I am confident I can have a similar strong start and there is no reason to put barriers on myself. I will try and have an even better start than last season.”

The Paris Squash event, which will be held on the grounds of the Palais de Tokyo and in the shadow of the iconic Eiffel Tower, is the first Platinum event to be held in France since the 1994 French Open. 

Currently, there are five French men’s players within the world’s top 30 ranked players, with a further two within the world’s top 100, but Crouin hopes that the upcoming event can help inspire a new generation to get into the sport. 

“French squash is in good shape at the minute on the professional tour,” he said. “Even though we lost three experienced French players in the last few years, in Camille [Serme], Greg [Gaultier], and Mathieu [Castagnet], we still have a good contingent of young French players, especially on the men’s side. Looking far ahead, it seems that this dynamic is fading away. 

“Squash in general has suffered from the Covid period in France and junior squash is not as strong as it used to be when I was a junior. I hope this event will give kids some inspiration and if some of them would pick up a racket and start playing squash as a hobby, then we will have made a step in the right direction. 

“Hopefully, enough coverage in the local and national media will help make squash more popular in the country.”

Squash fans will be able to watch Paris Squash live on SQUASHTV, while the semi-finals and finals will also be shown live on the channels of PSA’s broadcast partners.

For more information on the Paris Squash, visit the PSA website or follow the PSA on X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.