Season Review: Mazen Hesham

It was a breakthrough season on the tour for Mazen Hesham, who finally put his injury issues behind him to deadly effect as he captured a first title in seven years, reached the quarter finals of the World Championship for the first time, and finished the season with a career best ranking of World No.7.

We caught up with ‘the Falcon’ to get his take on the year.

MH: “I think my season was pretty good. I’d say with rankings, I didn’t do much on the ranking side, but overall, with having a serious injury in the last few months of last season, I wasn’t sure whether I was going to be able to play the season. But I was able to play and I was getting better. I think every two or three months, I was making much better progress. If you compare the way I’m moving, the way I’m playing, I’m more focused on my squash and less on injuries. So I’d say I’m happy.

“Of course, there are a few matches that I think should have gone differently, but it is what it is. That’s sport. I’m learning to deal with everything.“

On how he’s been improving

MH: “I think people have criticised my game a lot. ‘This guy has no patience. He’s mentally weak.’ But they’ve never been in my position. They don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes. Now, I can be more patient because I can sustain more. It’s as simple as that. I’ve been fitter because I can play more squash.

“I haven’t done anything crazy this season. I was actually in rehab more than training. The thing is, this year there were fewer bad days and more good or ok days. I still have pain at times, but it is what it is. It’s my body and I have to deal with it. There’s no way around it.

“I think that I have gained more patience, but it’s because of everything else. If you can put in the work, you can sustain more and be more patient and look for less crazy shots and build more rallies.

“It’s all related to my body. If my body gives me a chance to do an extra step, to be faster on the court, it gives me more options and I can focus on the squash. So yeah, every two-three months I was thinking ‘Ok, now I can do this more’ 

“I’m hoping now I can have a proper off-season like the other players. I haven’t had a true pre-season for nine years. It’s crazy!“

On his win v Ali Farag at the Optasia Championships

MH: “I think it was really good to get the win over Ali, mentally as well. But I lost the next day so it’s not like a fairytale of a tournament. I honestly didn’t think I was going to play that well in the match. I’m like you guys [watching on SQUASHTV] I was like ‘Oh, I can do this now!’. I’m fitter, I’m better at this.’

“So I was pretty happy with how I performed that day, but the next day I was 1-0 up but couldn’t push anymore. I think this one match was a real breakthrough in the season for me. Mentally as well, because afterwards I could talk to my coach and be like ‘Ok, I think we’re better now and can push more.’

On his on-court battles with Mostafa Asal

MH: I’ve been minding my own business the whole season to be honest, even when [Asal] got banned the first time. I don’t think people know this, especially his fans online, I don’t think they know this and I’ve never actually put in a complaint against him. I found out like you guys that it was one of the matches [against me] he got banned for.

“I think Mostafa’s a great player. He’s very athletic, a very good squash player and all that. But the other side, people can see. I don’t want to just go through it into too many details, I’m just going to say it’s more than just a squash match for us. You have to think about other things, you have to think about the physical side, you have to think about how to get out and get in and stuff like that.

“It’s not easy. And I don’t think it’s easy for him as well because you have to prepare every time for the match. I’m just saying that I think I’ve played better throughout the season with him. I think I’ve got better and better.

“Honestly, after what he did in the World Championship, I think I rated myself as well. I should have won that match. Even without anything happening. I was 9-5 up and I kind of blew it up, which I’m learning from. It’s something I’m learning from and getting more patient.

“It was my first time in a World Championship quarter final, not because I’m not a good player but because I wasn’t able to perform. It’s all new to me I’d say – the guys I’m playing are younger but it’s all new to me.

“Honestly, at the end of the day I think everyone’s seen the evidence, they’ve seen online, and I don’t want to go into too much detail anyway. After the last match in El Gouna, he beat me 3-0, said some stuff. But after the match, he said ‘I’m sorry for this’. And this is how I leave it to people as well, if you’re really sorry when you felt at the beginning that you didn’t do anything wrong, why are you sorry after this match?

“I know it’s back and forth. He’s a good guy at the end of the day. But I’m just saying that, on court, there’s so much stuff happening and I think the PSA has everything already. You know, like on the let now, you can see the decision, and it was the first tournament after he got banned, so it was a bit weird to be able to do this in the first tournament.

“But back to myself, because I always like to focus on myself, I know this is going to happen and I know it’s coming and when it comes to me, then I focus about him, but other than this to be honest he’s one of the eight or so players I want to go through.

“So aside from that, I still wish him all the best. I hope he can get everything fixed but it is what it is and it’s going to keep going the same way it is.”

On taking positives from his World Championship quarter final against Asal, in which Asal came back from 9-5 down in game five to beat Hesham

MH: “I was happy until the 9-5 part!

“I kind of blew it up and I have to be honest with myself. You have to look at yourself in the mirror and I had my chances, I could have done much better than I did but I kind of froze in there, which can happen.

” Hopefully in the next few matches over the next few seasons I can do better and better when I get to those positions. But at the end of the day, I was really happy with how I moved, dodged everything, and was able to focus, which is unlike me!

“So I’d say I was pretty happy with the overall [performance] but the conclusion, the outcome was not quite there.“

On his best performance of the season

MH: I think my best performance squash-wise, and mental-wise, was the match I played with [Karim Abdel] Gawad at the British Open [in which Hesham fought back from a game down to beat the former World No.1 3-1]. That was a tough one, for me mentally just to be able to push. He was on fire, coming and beating everyone, so to be able to push in that was really good.

“So I’d say probably that and my match against Ali [in Optasia]. That was one of the good matches. I always say this to myself and hopefully it’s going to happen, but the best is yet to come from me. I hope so.

On his goals for next season

MH: “I think I just want to get better and better. I want to get more wins, more titles if I can. Because to be honest you can be the best player in the world, the most talented or with the best shots, but usually people remember the winner. So I want to put my name on some trophies, and if you put your name on trophies the ranking is going to follow.

“So I think if I can just go up and up and up, that would be good. If I can finish in sixth with two titles, that would be good. Or I could finish fourth with no titles. It just depends. Hopefully I can finish top four, that would be good.”

On coming back from 0-2 down to beat Tarek Momen in the Malaysian Open final

“It was my first tournament win in seven or eight years. It was really big for me. Even if it was one of the smaller tournaments, it was tough as well. I had to beat good players to win it. Winning that title gives you a big confidence boost and I was really happy with this one. I’d been waiting a long time to win one and put my hand on a trophy. So now the goal is to win Golds and Platinums and the World Championship one day, who knows!

“[The final] was actually really funny and was a real test mentally for me. It’s a funny story, I think they had a soccer match [Malaysian Cup final] at the stadium next to us, so it took two hours to get to the venue and I barely made it.

“I just had ten minutes to warm up and for the first two games I was really out of it until I started playing well and so to bounce back I had to calm down and put myself in the right mindset and I think that shows how I’m improving mentally.”

On his mercurial brand of squash

MH: “I’m going to say this very bluntly: this is the way I play my game. This is the way I like to play and I won’t change it for the world. I like the way I play. This is me, this is Mazen, this is what you see.

“I’m just trying to make small changes if I can but it’s not like I’m boring and you know I’m going to play the same shot every day. I like to be creative and I like to enjoy myself on court. Hopefully with this stuff I can still make it, win titles and be a winner at the end of the day.”

Watch the best of Hesham in action over on SQUASHTV.