Manchester Open – Day Two: Afternoon Roundup

The second round of the Manchester Open got underway this afternoon from the National Squash Centre as the round one winners took on the top eight seeds in bids to react the quarter finals.

In an entertaining afternoon session, France’s Gregoire Marche came back from 2-0 down to defeat top seed Marwan Elshorbagy for the first time in his career. Marche entered the match with out a win against the Englishman in 10 attempts and after losing two opening games, looked to be again on the receiving end of an Elshorbagy win.

The Frenchman battled back to score the third game and breathe more life into the contest. The Elshorbagy frustration was increasing point by point, which was working to Marche’s advantage. 11-5, 11-2 were the scores in the fourth and fifth games as Marche completed the comeback to earn a spot in a fifth World Tour quarter final this season.

“It’s a great win for me. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever beaten him on the tour so it’s nice to finally break that record,” said Marche.

“I lost the first two games and I had some game balls I think but as I said, I knew something was going for me. I felt I was playing much better than yesterday, I just needed to clinch one thing, just one point maybe at the end of the third and that gave me a bit of confidence. I just had to stay calm and focused because the end of the third game was a bit tricky. Then, I started well in the fourth and the fifth as well, so yeah it’s a really good win for me. 

“I had a few issues during this season. I had surgery in my eyes in January, so I had to stay away from the court for two months. It was a good time off, maybe that’s why I feel a bit more fresh compared to the others. I just wanted to play well at the end of the season, there’s this tournament and then the British Open next week.”

Two of the other men’s matches also went the distance as Spain’s Iker Pajares and Egypt’s Youssef Ibrahim needed five games to defeat European duo Yannick Wilhelmi and Declan James. They will be joined by Scotland’s Greg Lobban, who downed up and coming English junior Jonah Bryant in straight games.

Egypt’s Nour Aboulmakarim scored the win of the women’s matches in the afternoon as she earned a spot in her first World Tour Quarter final, beating compatriot Farida Mohamed in an intense five-game battle. The match was filled with momentum swings and intense rallies with both players desperate to move ahead on the scoreboard. The younger Egyptian did that the best in the deciding game and closed it out 11-8 to score her biggest win on tour.

“Actually, this is my first time to ever reach the quarter final in a big event,”said Aboulmakarim after her win.

“It was a bit tricky with Farida [Mohamed], because we haven’t been playing for a while. I think last time we played with eachother it was two years ago, but overall, I managed it well mentally and technically. I’m so happy with my performance today and looking forward for what’s next.

“It was so intense, but it was all mental so I just tried to manage it and I’m happy to be through it. This is really big for me as I’ve had a lot of losses lately, so I think this win actually helped me to gain back my confidence and I’m looking forward to the British open before the end of the season too.”

The other women’s seeds featuring in the afternoon session all had no trouble in sealing their places in the last eight. Top seed Nour El Tayeb successfully started her title defence, beating Malaysia’s Aifa Azman in just 21 minutes whilst Rowan Elaraby and Sabrina Sobhy also won 3-0.

Round two action continues at 17:00 (GMT+1) with eight more matches. Both courts will be streamed live on SQUASHTV.

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Results: Men’s Round Two
Gregoire Marche (FRA) bt [1] Marwan Elshorbagy (ENG) 3-2: 11-13, 10-12, 11-9, 11-5, 11-2 (60m)
[7] Greg Lobban (SCO) bt Jonah Bryant (ENG) 3-0: 11-6, 11-9, 11-5 (58m)
[6] Iker Pajares (ESP) bt Yannick Wilhelmi (SUI) 3-2: 9-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-9, 11-5 (81m)
[4] Youssef Ibrahim (EGY) bt Declan James (ENG) 3-2: 7-11, 11-8, 7-11, 12-10, 11-6 (83m)

Results: Women’s Round Two
Nour Aboulmakarim (EGY) bt [7] Farida Mohamed (EGY) 3-2: 11-8, 4-11, 13-11, 8-11, 11-8 (56m)
[3] Rowan Elrabay bt Chan Sin Yuk (HKG) 3-0: 11-5, 11-5, 11-3 (24m)
[1] Nour El Tayeb (EGY) bt Aifa Azman (MAS) 3-0: 11-2, 11-5, 11-5 (21m)
[6] Sabrina Sobhy (USA) bt Katie Malliff (ENG) 3-0: 11-9, 11-6, 11-8 (38m)