R1 : Men’s second session, Youssef, Victor, Lucas, Karim

13.45 Matches

Karim El Hammamy (Egy) 3-1 Abdulla Al Tamimi (Qat)     11-6, 9-11, 11-4, 11-5 (46m)
Youssef Ibrahim (Egy) 3-0 [wc] Roger Baddour (Egy)                11-6, 11-2, 11-4 (23m)
Lucas Serme (Fra) 3-1 Vikram Malhotra (Ind)                  9-11, 11-4, 11-6, 11-7 (41m)
Victor Crouin (Fra) 3-2 Auguste Dussourd (Fra)       11-9, 9-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-7 (66m)

 

Lucas Serme (FRA) 3-1 Vikram Malhotra (IND)

Lucas: I pushed, and he made me run, and I pushed, I pushed, getting everything back until he made the error.

I was having trouble finding my targets. Well no, that’s not true, he was just finding them better than I! And he made me run for my life, so I went there, left it all on court, guts, legs. And today, I was fine physically, I was able to run – that was lucky!

I forced a few errors out of him, without making too many myself, and I took the opportunities – the few ones I had when I was in control.

Happy to get through in 4, I was down 1/0 but when I realise that he was making the error when I was lengthening the rallies, I kept forcing him to play one more shot.

After that, I had a good lead and I relaxed, I’m happy.

Tomorrow, I’m playing Kandra, I haven’t played him for a while, we’ll see, it’s going to be good and refreshing.

 

Karim El Hammamy (Egy) 3-1 Abdulla Al Tamimi (Qat) 

Karim: What a shot maker. He makes unbelievable shots from the back of the court, we are playing at the back, and tight shots, and he plays a crosscourt nick from the back of the court! He is so unpredictable. He is better than the Egyptians!!!

He is a very talented player, he did a lot of errors today, especially in the last game. I think he is not his 100%, he is recovering from an injury. He only played one tournament in Qatar, so I feel what he is going through as I stayed a year without playing as well.

All credit to him for playing that well and at this level while not playing for 6 or 7 months… and all credit to his talent that is still showing on court.

I felt solid today, especially mentally as it’s not easy to play with a talented player, being always on your toed, on the T, because you cannot read what he is going to do. From any place on the court, he can play a crosscourt nick easy.

Today I don’t think my physicality was the key no, because I think my squash was good. I was playing tight shots, I didn’t leave the T for him to stand in front of him, and I did counterdrop very well, I be honest, I didn’t expect my counterdrops to be that good today. I surprised myself at the front of the court…

Tomorrow I’m playing Zahed, we played once 4 years ago, he won 3/1 but it was a long time ago. So no pressure on me, but I want to win to take it a step forward.

 

Youssef Ibrahim (EGY) 3-0 [WC] Roger Baddour (EGY)

Youssef : Today I had to be the mature player (Fram chuckles) I remember back 4 years ago, I took the WC Spot here in Gouna, and I was very excited, so happy to play with the big shots. And today I knew it was going to be him…

In the first game, every shot he was playing was short and in the nick! So I had to play basic game, very simple, not complicate things. Once I found my rhythm in the second game, I started to be able to attack.

I made sure I was lengthening the rallies, while attacking in the right time. But Roger is a very good junior, when he plays more tournaments he is going to be very good. Turning from junior to senior is not easy, this is his first tournament, but I’m sure he is going to get better and better.