PHOTO ALBUM
Final
[3] Joel Makin (WAL) 3-1 [1] Mohamed ElShorbagy 11-7, 5-11, 13-11, 11-4 (70m)
Full Coverage on ManchesterOpenSquash.com
Semis
[1] Mohamed ElShorbagy 3-2 [4] Karim Abdel Gawad 13-15, 11-4, 11-5, 4-11, 11-6 (64m)
Quarters
[4] Karim Abdel Gawad 3-1 Mathieu Castagnet (FRA) 12-10, 4-11, 11-4, 11-8 (55m)
[1] Mohamed ElShorbagy 3-1 [7] Eain Yow Ng (MAS) 7-11, 11-8, 13-11, 11-5 (53m)
[3] Joel Makin (WAL) 3-0 [5] Youssef Soliman 11-9, 11-4, 11-4 (50m)
Round Two
[1] Mohamed ElShorbagy3-1 Victor Crouin (FRA)
[7] Eain Yow Ng (MAS) 3-0 Moustafa El Sirty 11-7, 11-6, 11-7 (35m)
[4] Karim Abdel Gawad 3-0 Shahjahan Khan (USA) 11-4, 11-7, 12-10 (32m)
[5] Youssef Soliman 3-0 Leonel Cardenas (MEX) 11-9, 11-5, 11-1 (36m)
Patrick Rooney (ENG) 3-2 [2] Marwan ElShorbagy 13-11, 4-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9 (59m)[2] Joelle King (NZL) 3-1 Sana Ibrahim 11-4, 11-9, 2-11, 11-9 (45m)
[4] Nele Gilis (BEL) 3-0 Hana Ramadan 14-12, 11-7, 11-7 (41m)
Jasmine Hutton (ENG) 3-1 [5] Nadine Shahin 8-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-6 (39m)
[1] Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG) 3-1 Yathreb Adel 6-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-8 (46m)
Mohamed
“I was enjoying too much, I was excited too much! I was feeling like I wanted to play so much because I haven’t been playing well the last few events.
“It definitely has not been the best season in my career. I came here and I had to change my mentality, to enjoy the game again, and to remember why I play the game. I play because I love the sport, you know! Because I have won so much in my career, when I started losing, I forgot why I play the sport, so once I got too excited at the beginning of the match, you forget how you want to play. He is a quality player, we saw what he did against Paul [Coll] in Canary Wharf, even if Paul was not on his best that day, but still, when Paul doesn’t have a great day, he still isn’t easy to beat! He has shown what he is capable, and I definitely didn’t take anything for granted today.
“Right now, I can’t think of distance [to the top two] . I haven’t even been making it to the latter stages of a tournament in the last few events. I have to be honest with myself and I cannot compare myself to what they [Paul Coll and Ali Farag] are doing. They have been playing at another level, mentally, physically and technically. That is something I have to deal with myself.
“One bad season for me does not mean I am finished, I am allowed to have a bad season. It is just that everyone forgot, because I have won so much in my career, the expectation of me is to be making finals, or at least semis, you know. If I play a few bad tournaments, that means I am not there anymore.. But I am only 31-years-old and I have never seen an athlete who has won so much in his career, who is then finished at 31.
“It is a stage in my career where there are a lot of changes happening. There is a different generation playing, my own generation is playing much better. These changes can take you by surprise sometimes and you have to go back, train and make changes. I never think for a second that I won’t come back.
“I have had a lot of challenges in my career, with different generations and much tougher players. I played against Ramy [Ashour], Nick [Matthew], Greg [Gaultier], [Amr] Shabana, these guys were warriors! If I can compete with those guys, ten I can compete with today’s guys, I know I can come back at some point. Maybe not this tournament, or the next one, but I will get there at some point.”
Karim Abdel Gawad
“It’s my first time playing Shahjahan and we’ve trained a bit before so it’s nice to play him and nice to get through to the quarters.
“I have good and bad memories. I lost first round here last year but reached the final the year before. I’m just trying to focus on my game and concentrate in every match.
“Well, I’ve played both Saurav (Ghosal) and Mathieu (Castagnet) quite a lot over the years and they’re both very dangerous players. I’ll just focus on my recovery and look forward to hopefully a good performance tomorrow.”
Round One
Moustafa El Sirty 3-1 Ramit Tandon (Ind) 11-9, 11-4, 7-11, 11-7 (40m)
Hana Ramadan 3-0 Tong Tsz-Wing (Hkg) 11-7, 11-9, 14-12 (33m)
Sana Ibrahim 3-0 Anna Serme (Cze) 11-3, 12-10, 11-3 (27m)
Yathreb Adel 3-0 Menna Nasser 11-6, 11-3, 11-3 (22m)
Yathreb
“I’m very happy to be through, Menna is a very close friend of mine, so it’s hard to play a close friend in the first round. We both have respect from each other and we both wanted to win. When we step on court we just concentrate on our games, and what happens on court, happens on court.
“I’ve been struggling a lot lately, I lost my mum due to COVID recently, so it was hard to get back to playing. I was struggling as well to get my visa for the US events, it all happened at the same time, so it wasn’t the best time for me.
“I just want to say thank you to Laura Massaro because my bag didn’t arrive, and she actually had to drive to get my racket, so I owe it to her today. She said that I better make it happen at the end of the day.”
Hana:
“I had a good start going 8-0 in the first then lost some concentration. Each game had its own challenges. I had to keep my mind to just keep pushing.
“I’ve never played Nele actua-lly, but I’ve watched her a lot so I know how much she’s improved so I’m looking forward to that. I know she’s a very physical player so I’m expecting it to be a long match but I have to remember to step up and go for my shots as well.”
El Sirty:
“Ramit is such a tough first-round opponent, he’s really tricky,” said El Sirty.
“He knows his game really well, I’m really happy that I adapted and made him play my game and it’s such a good feeling to get the win and to be through”
“In the first game I started to hit the ball as hard as I could but that made the ball so bouncy so it wasn’t doing enough to him. In the middle of the court, he’s really tricky and so talented and I was just glad I managed to control the game and snatched it at the end.
“I kept him in the back In the second game and didn’t let him attack me much and I dropped off in the third game but overall, I’m happy that I got back on it and won in the end.”
