[9/16] Youssef Soliman 3-1 Victor Crouin (Fra) 11-9, 9-11, 11-3, 11-0 (42m)
[9/16] Omar Mosaad 3-1 Mathieu Castagnet (Fra) 9-11, 11-6, 13-11, 11-8 (68m)
[9/16] Gregoire Marche (Fra) 3-0 [wc] Abdelrahman Nassar 11-0, 11-2, 11-5 (26m)
[9/16] Mohamed ElSherbini 3-2 James Willstrop (Eng) 11-7, 6-11, 12-10, 5-11, 11-9 (79m)
[9/16] Youssef Ibrahim 3-0 Karim El Hammamy 11-9, 12-10, 11-3 (47m)
Mohamed ElSherbini said
“I’m just enjoying my time on court, I’m not stressing. The last few tournaments I’ve been putting a lot of stress on myself and not been playing with a lot of confidence. Today, I said to myself he’s a former World No.1 and I’ve been looking up to him all my life when I was young. I just wanted to show him what I’ve got and enjoy myself on court.
“My short game was pretty good today and I was attacking well from the middle of the court. I was patient and I think it worked pretty well and I was going short on the backhand side.
“At 8-6, I thought I didn’t come this far to come this far, so might as well give it everything.”
🗣 "I was a little bit stressed today, especially playing in front of my club."
Home hero @mosaadsquash books his place in the next round at his home club @BlackBallSquash 💪#BlackBallOpen pic.twitter.com/WdPsbQlyOo
— PSA World Tour (@PSAWorldTour) December 16, 2021
Mosaad said
“I was a little bit stressed today, especially playing in front of my club. I wanted to win this match and play well. In the beginning I was stressed a little bit but then I started to play my game and started to play well.
“Mathieu is such a good player and we have played some good matches in the last four or five years, for this match I knew it would be tough and hard. I’m really happy to win today and play tomorrow.
“I’m just thinking about every point and point by point. Tomorrow is going to be a good match and I will put everything into it, I have trained so hard and I have a chance to win tomorrow.”
Youssef Soliman said
“I’d only played Victor a few years ago, but I knew it would be a different game. He’s one of the up-and-coming players, he’s hungry and he planned not to make it easy for me. I planned not to make it easy for him too, especially from the start. The first two games were close at 11-9, 9-11, but then I set up my game well in the third.
“Mostafa Asal is a bit of a trouble maker, but it will definitely be an interesting one and a challenge. He’s young but he’s playing mature squash and he’s a top player, you have to accept it. I need to get my tactics right if I want to get through this one, I’m excited and we’ll see how it goes.
“It’s been a rollercoaster year for me, but I’m finishing the year inside the top 20, so I will take this as a positive thing. I will think match by match and I’m totally focused on my match with Mostafa Asal.”
