Men’s Worlds: Elias Comes Through Against Yuen

Peru’s Diego Elias ended a four-year wait for a victory at the PSA Men’s World Championship as he overcame Malaysia’s Ivan Yuen in straight games at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex in Doha, Qatar.

At World No.7, Elias is one of the world’s leading players, but he hasn’t been able to transfer his skills to the world’s biggest squash tournament and suffered a disappointing round one defeat to England’s Adrian Waller in Chicago back in February.

Elias did reach a maiden PSA Platinum semi-final last year here during the 2018 Qatar Classic though, and he will look to draw on the kind of form that saw him stun then World No.1 Mohamed ElShorbagy at that event.

He didn’t always have it his own way against Yuen today and was a bit casual in the opening stages as some unforced errors enabled his opponent to put some points on the board.

Elias pulled away to build up a one-game lead, but some more errors saw him through away an 8-5 lead in the second.

He was able to refocus, edging it 11-9, but the same happened in third after a short injury break due to a calf injury sustained by Yuen. The Malaysian recovered as he fought back to set up a tie-break, but Elias held firm to complete an 11-8, 11-9, 14-12 victory.

The 22-year-old will play Scotland’s Greg Lobban in the next round, with Lobban overcoming Hong Kong’s Max Lee in four games.

“I’ve never won a match at a World Championship, maybe one, my first one,” said Elias.

“This is very important for me, I want to play my best squash, and I think every time I’ve played here in Qatar I’ve done well. I like this court and I hope I can go further this time.

“It was really important [the win over ElShorbagy], I was coming back from an injury, and I hadn’t beaten any top 10 players before that. The first time I beat ElShorbagy he was No.1, so it was really important for my confidence.

“I’m feeling really good now, I hope I can go further in this tournament and hopefully win.”

Result
[6] Diego Elias (PER) bt Ivan Yuen (MAS) 3-0: 11-8, 11-9, 14-12 (45m)