Black Ball Open Day One: Wildcard Azzam Upsets Mueller

17-year-old wildcard Omar Azzam marked his PSA World Tour debut with a superb victory over World No.14 Nicolas Mueller in the final glass court match of today’s evening session at the Black Ball Squash Open.

It was a bizarre match at times, with both players struggling physically throughout. Mueller struggled to move when going in to retrieve the ball short, while Azzam, the World No.469, requested an injury break in the third game as he appeared to be dealing with illness.

Despite their respective issues, both players certainly fought on bravely, with 32-year-old Mueller showing his experience as he twice came back from a game down. Azzam was sublime in the decider though and was able to hold his nerve after squandering two match balls, with a smash into the nick sealing the win and sending the crowd wild.

“I’ve been dreaming of this match since I was a little kid,” said Azzam, who will play 2019-20 World Champion Tarek Momen in the next round.

“It’s a great thing to share a court with a tough player like Nicolas. He’s such a good player and I’ll remember this day until I die, I can’t believe it.

“I told myself to give it my all. I’ve been training my shots for the past year with my coach, Ahmed Eiffat. All of the hard work came out, so I’m really happy with my performance and I’m looking forward to the next match.”

Elsewhere, World No.70 Mohamed Abouelghar won the battle of the Egyptian shot-making talents as he defeated World No.15 Youssef Ibrahim in four games.

Both players have endured significant injury lay-offs this year, with Abouelghar in particular spending 13 months away from the sport. After a run to the semi-finals of the Pittsburgh Open last month, ‘The Bullet’ looks to be hitting his stride and was wonderful in the opening two games of his clash with Ibrahim, hitting the ball with purpose and not allowing Ibrahim to use his own impressive racket skills.

A slow start to the third from Abouelghar saw Ibrahim halve his opponent’s advantage, but Abouelghar regrouped in the fourth to seal a win which will see him play 2021 runner-up Ali Farag.

“Every time I play him I get in a fight at the front of the court,” Abouelghar said.

“Today I chose to play a bit differently, I hit my marks well at the back of the court and I attacked when I had the opportunity. I’m not really known for that type of play but I think I played well today. I’ve been out for a year, so I studied my game a lot with my coaches and I’ve watched hundreds of my matches. Today is a good milestone, winning more points at the back of the court against someone as talented as Youssef.”

Egypt’s Youssef Soliman and Frenchman Gregoire Marche were the other two men’s winners in the evening session.

In the women’s draw, World No.19 Nada Abbas required a sensational comeback as she overturned a 2-0 deficit against fellow Egyptian Mariam Metwally earlier this evening.

Abbas, 22, beat Metwally at last year’s of this tournament, but it looked like the latter would have her revenge after outclassing her opponent to take what seemed at the time to be a commanding lead.

Abbas was particularly frustrated with some of the refereeing decisions and she appeared to let that get into her head at times, although she was able to refocus and came out a different player in the third game. Metwally struggled to live with Abbas’s improved accuracy at the front of the court, and Abbas was able to rattle off wins in the next three games to seal an 7-11, 8-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-7 victory.

An emotional Abbas – who recently underwent a six-month period of ineligibility – said: “I just want to say that I’m really proud of myself. It was a matter of bad luck, I never took anything to enhance my performance, I never thought about it, and what happened to me was bad luck and could have happened to anyone.

“I want to say to whoever is listening: Please don’t judge others. Everyone is struggling, everyone is going through something. You don’t know what people are going through, so please be humble and be kind.”

Abbas will go up against New Zealand’s No.4 seed Joelle King in the next round and will hope to rediscover the form that saw her upset the Kiwi in the last 16 of the 2021-22 PSA World Championships.

USA’s Sabrina Sobhy was also in action during this evening’s matches and the World No.16 overcame some early jitters to defeat 15-year-old wildcard Lauren Baltayan, who plays and trains at the Black Ball Sporting Club.

Baltayan, born in Cairo but representing France, recovered from a 5-0 deficit to force a tie-break in the opening game as she grew into the match and took advantage of the home support behind her.

She was unable to cap her PSA World Tour debut with a win though as Sobhy eventually found her way past the World No.242 to go a game ahead, and she swiftly pulled away from there to complete a 3-0 win.

“Maybe there were nerves for her at the start but then she got comfortable with the glass court and the crowd and started playing some outrageous shots,” Sobhy said.

“I wasn’t necessarily expecting that at the beginning and all credit to her, she played how any wildcard should play, she was fearless and went for it. She did a great job with it. I tried to think about my game a little bit more and I had to step up my intensity a bit, which I was lacking at the beginning of the first. That was about it really, I was just trying to get myself a bit more energised and up for the match.”

Belgium’s Tinne Gilis and Egypt’s Farida Mohamed also scored victories in the evening session over on court 13, beating World No.36 Sana Ibrahim and Hong Kong’s Tomato Ho, respectively.

The Black Ball Squash Open continues tomorrow when top seeds Mostafa Asal and Nouran Gohar will get their title challenges under way. Play begins at 12:00 (GMT+2) and matches will be streamed live on SQUASHTV.

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Read more about what happened in the afternoon session here.

Results – Men’s First Round (Evening Session): 2023 Black Ball Squash Open

[WC] Omar Azzam (EGY) bt Nicolas Mueller (SUI) 3-2: 12-10, 4-11, 11-7, 4-11, 11-9 (55m)

Gregoire Marche (FRA) bt Greg Lobban (SCO) 3-2: 11-9, 6-11, 14-16, 11-6, 13-11 (81m)

Youssef Soliman (EGY) bt Baptiste Masotti (FRA) 3-0: 11-7, 11-9, 12-10 (51m)

Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY) bt Youssef Ibrahim (EGY) 3-1: 12-10, 11-9, 5-11, 11-5 (54m)

Draw – Men’s Second Round (Top Half): To Be Played March 3rd

[1] Mostafa Asal (EGY) v Fares Dessouky (EGY)

[WC] Omar Azzam (EGY) v [7] Tarek Momen (EGY)

[6] Marwan ElShorbagy (EGY) v Sebastien Bonmalais (FRA)

Joel Makin (WAL) v [4] Paul Coll (NZL)

Draw – Men’s Second Round (Bottom Half): To Be Played March 4th

[3] Diego Elias (PER) v Gregoire Marche (FRA)

Youssef Soliman (EGY) v [8] Mazen Hesham (EGY)

[5] Mohamed ElShorbagy (ENG) v Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY)

Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY) v [2] Ali Farag (EGY)

Results – Women’s First Round (Evening Session): 2023 Black Ball Squash Open

Sabrina Sobhy (USA) bt [WC] Lauren Baltayan (FRA) 3-0: 13-11, 11-3, 11-2 (23m)

Nada Abbas (EGY) bt Mariam Metwally (EGY) 3-2: 7-11, 8-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-7 (56m)

Farida Mohamed (EGY) bt Tomato Ho (HKG) 3-1: 11-6, 3-11, 11-8, 11-6 (41m)

Tinne Gilis (BEL) bt Sana Ibrahim (EGY) 3-0: 15-13, 12-10, 11-7 (56m)

Draw – Women’s Second Round (Top Half): To Be Played March 3rd

[1] Nouran Gohar (EGY) v Sabrina Sobhy (USA)

Nadine Shahin (EGY) v [7] Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG)

[8] Georgina Kennedy (ENG) v Emily Whitlock (WAL)

Nada Abbas (EGY) v [4] Joelle King (NZL)

Draw – Women’s Second Round (Bottom Half): To Be Played March 4th

[3] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) v Farida Mohamed (EGY)

Tinne Gilis (BEL) v [6] Rowan Elaraby (EGY)

[5] Amanda Sobhy (USA) v Salma Hany (EGY)

Tesni Evans (WAL) v [2] Nour El Sherbini (EGY)