R1: It’s 3/1 for Karim against Declan

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[3] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) bt Declan James (ENG)  11-6, 11-5, 8-11, 11-6 (47m)

Karim

Playing in front of your wife and kid bring extra motivation…

For me, Declan is very hard to play. He beat me a lot of times, and I manage to clinch the win a few times but it was always very close games. So having him here today in my first round was not an easy first round to say the least!

After his injury, he’s been playing very well, and I’m very happy to see him back on court. He is one of the best ball control players on the PSA Tour. Nice to see him back.

Starting from the third, he started to control the T more, and I was suffering to keep him behind me. So I just kept pushing mentally, but you have to run more to cover the shots he can play from a high position on the court.

You need to make sure you show your opponent you are not going to give him any easy point, and in the third, I lost a bit of mental focus, and I gave him too many unforced errors. But luckily, I managed to turn it around in the last game.

Another tough match awaits with Youssef Soliman, a good friend and a tough opponent. He’s been out for so long because of injury, and it’s nice to see him back too. He’s been doing very well on tour, but when you get injured, it takes you a long time to recover mentally and physically, to try and break it, and be on at your best again…