Pittsburgh Open 2023 Day One Round-Up: Rooney Fights Back To Advance To Round Two

World No.20 Patrick Rooney fought back from two games down to defeat World No.43 Lucas Serme 3-2 on the opening day of the Pittsburgh Open.

Rooney, who was facing Serme for the first time on the PSA World Tour, was 1-0 down following a superb start from his opponent, as Serme clinched the first emphatically 11-3.

Serme doubled his advantage when he edged the second 11-9, but Rooney surged back to halve the deficit when he took the third game 11-5.

Rooney levelled the match with an 11-9 victory in the fourth to send it into a decider, and the Englishman stepped up to the plate to progress to the second round after claiming the fifth 11-5, rounding off a bruising 62-minute battle.

Afterwards, Rooney said: “I feel happy to be through. I started way too slow and probably didn’t take the court into consideration with my game plan.

“I started way too slow and I was giving him (Serme) too much time and he was punishing me for it.

“I was 2-0 down and I really had to pick up the pace, stick in there, make it hard, not make any errors and claw my way back. But I’m just happy to be through.”

Rooney’s fellow countryman Nathan Lake came through an attritional encounter with Egypt’s Omar Mosaad, winning 3-1: 12-14, 11-5, 19-17, 11-7 in 70 minutes to set up second round clash with No.1 seed Ali Farag.

Saurav Ghosal of India also had a lengthy clash against Karim El Hammamy, with the former booking his second round place with a 3-1 triumph, and Ghosal’s compatriot Ramit Tandon also advanced to the next round after overcoming Dimitri Steinmann 3-1.

Elsewhere, Mohamed Abouelghar and Eain Yow Ng chalked up comfortable wins to reach round two, dispatching Sebastien Bonmalais and Cesar Salazar in straight games, respectively.

The seeds enter the fray for round two of the Pittsburgh Open tomorrow (February 9), which gets underway from 16:00 (GMT-5) at the Rivers Club. All four matches on court two will be streamed live and free on the PSA website.

For more information about the Pittsburgh Open, visit the PSA website or follow the PSA on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

Results – Round One: Pittsburgh Open 2023

Nathan Lake (ENG) bt Omar Mosaad (EGY) 3-1: 12-14, 11-5, 19-17, 11-7 (70m)

Gregoire Marche (FRA) bt Todd Harrity (USA) 3-0: 11-9, 11-5, 11-4 (39m)

Saurav Ghosal (IND) bt Karim El Hammamy (EGY) 3-1: 11-5, 9-11, 12-10, 12-10 (83m)

Ramit Tandon (IND) bt Dimitri Steinmann (SUI) 3-1: 11-9, 12-14, 11-5, 11-7 (64m)

Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY) bt Sebastien Bonmalais (FRA) 3-0: 11-5, 11-5, 11-7 (34m)

Eain Yow Ng (MAS) bt Cesar Salazar (MEX) 3-0: 11-4, 11-1, 11-2 (28m)

Patrick Rooney (ENG) bt Lucas Serme (FRA) 3-2: 3-11, 9-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-5 (62m)

Youssef Ibrahim (EGY) bt Nick Wall (ENG) 3-1: 6-11, 11-5, 11-6, 14-12 (41m)

Draw – Round Two: To be played February 9

[1] Ali Farag (EGY) v Nathan Lake (ENG)

Gregoire Marche (FRA) v [7] Youssef Soliman (EGY)

[5] Mazen Hesham (EGY) v Saurav Ghosal (IND)

Ramit Tandon (IND) v [3] Marwan ElShorbagy (EGY)

[4] Tarek Momen (EGY) v Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY)

Eain Yow Ng (MAS) v [6] Joel Makin (WAL)

[8] Miguel Rodriguez (COL) v Patrick Rooney (ENG)

Youssef Ibrahim (EGY) v [2] Diego Elias (PER)