“I have the whole crowd behind me and that definitely helps me to play at my best.” Victor Crouin Looks Ahead To Another Boisterous Paris Squash 2024

French No.1 Victor Crouin is eagerly anticipating his homecoming at the Paris Squash Open 2024, the biggest PSA event on French soil. He’s preparing to compete in front of a passionate local crowd at the historic Cirque d’Hiver Bouglione from the 15-21 September.

Crouin is focused on making a deep run in the tournament and showcasing the growth that has seen him rise to the top of French squash over the past few seasons. With the backing of his home fans and the prestige of the event, Crouin will be looking to embrace the challenge and aims to deliver a standout performance on one of the sport’s biggest stages in his home country.

We caught up with the World No.11 to discuss his excitement for the event, his disappointing end to last season and a first round clash with former World No.1 Karim Abdel Gawad.

“I’m super excited to be playing back on home soil again,” said Crouin.

“The atmosphere was superb last year and even the year before in Nantes. I’m looking forward to playing back home and it’s always special for me and it’s a big event for the French squash communities.”

Crouin admitted that he feels playing at home on the PSA World Tour has always increased his level. Of his last 20 PSA matches on French soil, Crouin has only lost twice. One of which came in last year’s Paris Squash 2023 to eventual champion Ali Farag.

“I think it does [on playing in France raising his level]. I feel comfortable in-between matches, being with family and friends and being in my routine not being far away. It’s definitely an advantage to not have to recover from any travel so it builds the excitement knowing that I have the whole crowd behind me and definitely helps me to play at my best.”

Despite trying to maintain a calm demeanour on court, the French No.1 still enjoys a boisterous home crowd and reveals that it actually can help him to concentrate even further.

“My style is trying to be more calm and focused on court and even though I don’t show it to the crowd I really like it when they’re all behind me and helping me through every rally. Even when they’re shouting and the noise increases, it actually helps me to stay focused and think about what I’m doing more and more.”

The 25-year-old struggled at the back end of the 2023/24 season, losing out before the last eight in all of his last four events. Crouin is very analytical player and spoke about how his preparation for those events was far from ideal and how his summer training was tailored to those losses.

“I try to learn from every match, especially those that I lose. I am quite analytical so I’ve looked back on those matches that I lost at the end of last season and have tailored my training towards fixing those details. 

“I think at the end of last season it was bad preparation from me. I feel like those tournaments in Egypt I had played maybe too many events and I didn’t have any time to do any training and properly get ready for them so I’m excited to start the season having a block of summer training under my belt.”

Although good performances will take care of ranking positions, Crouin still has the direct targets of returning to the top 10 and further in his eyes for the new season.

“I would say both. My on court performances will take care of the ranking if I play well but I’m definitely trying to get back into the top 10 and even the top eight by the end of the season but there are a lot of good players trying to do the same thing so it will be competitive for sure.”

Crouin’s first round opponent in the Paris Squash 2024 is former World Champion Karim Abdel Gawad. The Frenchman has scored a win over the Egyptian before but explains that all the players in the top 10 are there for a reason and to score a win over any of them is a tough task.

“I think all the players in the top 10 are extremely tough to beat and you have to earn your place in there. [Karim Abdel] Gawad is one of the best players in the world. He showed last year that he’s close to being back to his best, he’s in the top six so I’m just looking forward to playing a good match with him.”

The Paris Squash 2024 begins on the 15th September with matches coming from three venues across Paris. Crouin will be one of the nine matches featuring on the glass court at Cirque d’Hiver Bouglione, live on SQUASHTV.