Masotti Confidence Boosted After ‘Frustrating’ Start to Season

France’s No.2 Baptiste Masotti has endured a challenging start to the 2023/24 season, losing out in his first match of the opening three tournaments of the year, despite being ranked inside the top 16 in the world rankings.

The 28-year-old bounced back in superb style at the Grasshopper Cup as he overcame Mostafa Asal on route to a semi-final finish at the Gold level event. He then his strong form up with a win at the Lagord 30k event last week, beating Greg Lobban in the final.

We caught up with the Frenchman to get his thoughts on his start to the season, his win over Asal and his goals for the rest of the season.

Q. After quite a tough start to the season in the three Platinum events, how happy were you with your level of squash despite losing out to quality players? 

BM – “I was very frustrated at the of the start of my season, I was losing back to back against top players. It was very hard mentally and I was not capitalising on the good work I did during the summer. But to be honest in the first two events, my level was very bad. My attitude was bad too and I just had to regroup for the US Open, where I finally played a good match with Paul [Coll]. Even though I lost, that match boosted my confidence for October!”

Q. Was the semi-final finish in Zurich more of a relief because of the way the first three tournaments went for you?

BM – “Of course because that was not planned. I entered in the Lagord 30k to play more matches and try to win. But in Zurich, the tournament was unbelievable for me because I was in a bad position in the beginning of the season … but as I said, I found some confidence in Philadelphia by playing a good match with Paul, I knew my level was there and I just needed to be patient.”

Q. Speaking of Zurich, your match with Mostafa was eventful. His first event back after a lengthy ban, now that you’ve had time to watch it back, do you have any more to say on how the match ended? 

BM – “To be honest it’s not the way I wanted to win. Until 8-7 in the third, nothing had happened and it was a good, fair and clean battle against a guy I respect a lot.

“When I asked for a review, I was only asking for a let because the ref gave me a no let before hand for something similar. My first reaction was that something un-natural had happened but I didn’t know what. I have no problem with him, or with this situation, I needed to be focused to win this match. I was more thinking that if the match wasn’t going my way, that it would be a big miss for me.”

Q. Looking ahead to the rest of the season, you have another tough draw in Hong Kong as you’re seeded to play Mohamed again. Are you frustrated with these kinds of draws or are you excited to take these top players on and challenge yourself?

BM – “I have a big first round match against Timmy Brownell, and then Mohamed [ElShorbagy] if I win. I will feel more ready I guess because I have a first round before and I will need to be serious. I am more frustrated playing big guys when it’s my first match (when I am top 16). Of course I would prefer to play other guys but I need to start to find a way and win against these guys to progress.”

Q. What are your main goals for this season? Win a World Tour event? Top 10? 

BM – “I don’t have many goals, but the ones that I do – I’m keeping in my head. I made the mistake of telling people I wanted to be top 10 and it gave me a lot of pressure, so I prefer to focus on my game and my level before everything. 

“But of course I want to reach that top 10 one day. But it doesn’t depend only on myself, I’ll prefer to focus on the things I can control 100%.”