Paris Squash 2024 – Day One: Evening Roundup

The first round of Paris Squash 2024 has come to a conclusion, with 16 more players across the men’s and women’s draws advancing to the next round of the Platinum-level event in the evening session.

The second half of the day’s play saw French trio Baptiste Masotti, Victor Crouin, and Sebastien Bonmalais play at the Cirque d’Hiver Bouglione, where they were met by a fervent home crowd.

Masotti took to the court in the last match of the day, and he certainly didn’t leave the home crowd short-changed, as he recovered from two games down to win a thrilling match against Abdulla Al-Tamimi. The Frenchman looked down and out after losing two entertaining opening games by 11-8 scorelines, but fed off the crowd to great effect to pull his way back into the match with his trademark aggressive squash. At 10-9 down in the fifth, Masotti pulled out an inch-perfect drop shot to stay in the match, before winning the subsequent two points to progress to the second round.

After the match, Masotti said: “I had a tough year since January, I haven’t been playing my best, and I’ve had some issues in my personal life, but I feel like I’m enjoying life again and it was so good to be here and playing in front of this crowd.”

French No.1 Victor Crouin ran into an inspired Karim Abdel Gawad in his opening round match, with ‘The Baby-Faced Assassin’ eventually coming through a high-quality four-game bout, which had at moments looked to be going the full distance. Despite Crouin taking an opening game tie-break, Gawad clawed his way back into the match with some classy squash, taking the match by a 12-14, 11-7, 11-7, 11-8 scoreline. Bonmalais, meanwhile, fell at the hands of No.2 seed Paul Coll in straight games.

The Squash Horizon club saw a number of brilliant battles take place, with Egypt’s Farida Mohamed causing a big shock as she came through a nip-and-tuck five-game duel with No.7 seed Tinne Gilis. After twice leading, and twice being pulled back level by the Belgian No.2, Mohamed eventually sealed victory 14-12 in the fifth, when a stroke decision went in her favour. Other notable wins came for Amanda Sobhy, who battled past Japanese No.1 Satomi Watanabe in four games, and Leonel Cardenas, who progressed past the dangerous Eain Yow Ng by the same scoreline.

Egyptian quartet, Nouran Gohar, Mazen Hesham, Mohamed El Sherbini, and Fayrouz Aboelkheir also advanced to the second round without any troubles.

A fortnight on from their controversial Egyptian Open clash, Tarek Momen and Fares Dessouky faced off against one another for the second time in as many events, this time taking to the court at the Squash Montmartre club. Momen, who claimed victory last time when a conduct game was awarded in his favour in a tight fifth game, this time managed to progress in a more routine manner, taking the match by a 12-10, 13-11, 11-4 scoreline.

Day two of action from Paris Squash gets underway from the Cirque d’Hiver Bouglione at 12:00 (GMT+2).

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Results: Paris Squash 2024 Women’s RD1 (evening session)

Farida Mohamed (EGY) bt [7] Tinne Gilis (BEL) 3-2: 11-7, 4-11, 11-9, 8-11, 12-10 (49m)

Amanda Sobhy (USA) bt Satomi Watanabe (JPN) 3-1: 11-9, 11-8, 7-11, 11-4 (37m)

Tesni Murphy (WAL) bt Hollie Naughton (CAN) 3-1: 8-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-9 (45m)

[2] Nouran Gohar (EGY) bt Nada Abbas (EGY) 3-0: 11-2, 11-2, 11-5 (29m)

Jasmine Hutton (ENG) bt Lucy Beecroft (ENG) 3-0: 11-9, 11-1, 11-3 (21m)

Fayrouz Aboelkheir (EGY) bt Hana Ramadan (EGY) 3-0: 11-5, 11-9, 11-5 (26m)

Sivasangari Subramaniam (MAS) bt Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG) 3-1: 11-8, 7-11, 11-8, 11-3 (35m)

[6] Georgina Kennedy (ENG) bt Aifa Azman (MAS) 3-0: 11-6, 11-2, 11-3 (22m)

Results: Paris Squash 2024 Men’s RD1 (evening session)

Leonel Cardenas (MEX) bt Eain Yow Ng (MAS) 3-1: 11-5, 11-8, 12-14, 11-3 (72m)

Mohamed ElSherbini (EGY) bt Raphael Kandra (GER) 3-0: 11-8, 11-7, 11-4 (37m)

[5] Mazen Hesham (EGY) bt Auguste Dussourd (FRA) 3-0: 11-7, 11-8, 11-7 (36m)

Dimitri Steinmann (SUI) bt. Nathan Lake (ENG) 3-0: 11-6, 11-7, 11-8 (34m)

[6] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) bt. Victor Crouin (FRA) 3-1: 12-14, 11-7, 11-7, 11-8 (55m)

[2] Paul Coll (NZL) bt Sebastien Bonmalais (FRA) 3-0: 11-5, 11-5, 11-7 (43m)

[7] Tarek Momen (EGY) bt Fares Dessouky (EGY) 3-0: 12-10, 13-11, 11-4 (42m)

Baptiste Masotti (FRA) bt Abdulla Al-Tamimi (QAT) 3-2: 8-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7, 12-10 (64m)