R2: Just above an hour for Zak against Joel and 3/0!

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Mohamad Zakaria (EGY) 3-0 [5] Joel Makin (WAL)  11-6, 11-5, 11-5 (64m)

To be honest, we all braced ourselves for a very, very late finish tonight. Last two times those two played, it went over 2h….

But tonight, Zak was the Boss on the court. He was dispatching the shots, he was placing the ball where he had decided to put it and Joel was making more work than he normally does, in the first two games I mean.

I felt the Welsh found a nice energy at the start of the 3rd, and he was bossing his opponent around up to 3/3.

But by then, Ziko was far too free, relaxed and his accuracy, in particular on the left side of the court, was immaculate.

90% of the rallies I would say were very very very long, attritional rallies. Mid pace, impeccable sportsmanship for both, no blocking or pushing, minimum contact, while the ball was moving around and enjoying the view from the 4 corners!

Extremely entertaining squash, not the ridiculous pace we saw between Ibrahim and Abhay first match today at the Complex, more structured, but as varied and intense. I loved every minute of it. Zakaria is becoming the player I thought he would become when I saw him as a “baby” in the Egyptian local events…

Just to finish, Joel, 3 unforced errors, Zak, 0. Length of the games, 20m, 21m, 19m. Chapeau.

Ziko : “I’m very happy with how I played today, the level was very good.

“Last time in Australia, he was in front of me a lot. When I kept throwing in the drop, he was able to then counter me. So I was just thinking about staying in front of him and only dropping when I was in front.

“I just liked how I was alert for it and ready for the tactical changes.”

“I worked on so many things. I had JP (Jonathan Power) come over to stay with me in Egypt and we did some really good work. I told him before the match I would be very disappointed if I didn’t show him all the things that we worked on before the match, because he puts in a lot of effort with me. I’m very happy to win in front of my parents, my family and my sister.