The 2025 edition of the Hong Kong Squash Open got under way today, with 32 Round One matches across four courts at Hong Kong Squash Centre. All the top seeds and all the local and wildcard players were in action on one of the busiest sessions in squash.
Afternoon Session Highlights : Big win for Sabrina over big sis Amanda, return to winning ways for Mazen, another marathon for HKFC champion Joel, 15 years in top ten for Mo …
Evening Session Highlights : ‘Simmy’ the sole HK survivor AGAIN, Masotti downs Gawad in six-match-ball thriller …
Women’s Round One :
[1] Hania El Hammamy (Egy) w/o Hollie Naughton (Can) Hollie no show
Tesni Murphy (Wal) 3-2 Malak Khafagy (Egy) 11-7, 5-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-6 (55m)
[3] Nour ElSherbini (Egy) 3-1 Jasmine Hutton (Eng) 6-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-2 (37m)
Hana Ramadan (Egy) 3-1 Aira Azman (Mas) 8-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-8 (33m)
Sabrina Sobhy (Usa) 3-2 [8] Amanda Sobhy (Usa) 9-11, 14-12, 8-11, 12-10, 11-6 (54m)
Kenzy Ayman (Egy) 3-2 Hana Moataz (Egy) 12-10, 14-16, 11-6, 5-11, 11-7 (47m)
Melissa Alves (Fra) 3-0 [wc] Tong Tsz-Wing (Hkg) 11-5, 11-5, 11-3 (23m)
[7] Siva Subramaniam (Mas) 3-0 Lucy Turmel (Eng) 11-8, 11-8, 11-9 (23m)
Sana Ibrahim (Egy) 3-0 Tomato Ho (Hkg) 11-6, 11-6, 11-8 (31m)
[6] Satomi Watanabe (Jpn) 3-1 Marina Stefanoni (Usa) 11-7, 12-14, 11-7, 11-2 (41m)
[2] Amina Orfi (Egy) 3-0 Georgia Adderley (Sco) 11-9, 11-4, 11-1 (34m)
Aifa Azman (Mas) 3-0 Zeina Mickawy (Egy) 11-5, 12-10, 11-6 (25m)
[4] Olivia Weaver (Usa) 3-0 Mariam Metwally (Egy) 11-3, 11-7, 14-12 (31m)
Nele Gilis (Bel) 3-0 Lee Ka Yi (Hkg) 11-7, 11-3, 11-5 (30m)
[5] Tinne Gilis (Bel) 3-0 Rachel Arnold (Mas) 11-8, 11-5, 11-3 (23m)
[wc] Chan Sin Yuk (Hkg) 3-0 Grace Gear (Eng) 11-4, 11-7, 11-3 (25m)
Men’s Round One :
Leonel Cardenas (Mex) 3-2 Sebastien Bonmalais (Fra) 11-8, 9-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6 (75m)
[3] Joel Makin 3-2 Declan James (Eng) 11-5, 8-11, 11-8, 12-14, 11-5 (94m)
Mohamad Zakaria (Egy) 3-0 Bernat Jaume (Esp) 11-5, 11-5, 11-6 (36m)
[7] Victor Crouin (Fra) 3-1 Greg Lobban (Sco) 11-0, 11-4, 6-11, 11-4 (40m)
Jonah Bryant (Eng) 3-0 [wc] Henry Leung (Hkg) 11-8, 11-9, 11-8 (37m)
[6] Mohamed ElShorbagy (Eng) 3-1 Fares Dessouky (Egy) 11-7, 17-19, 16-14, 11-5 (54m)
[1] Mostafa Asal (Egy) 3-0 Abhay Singh (Ind) 11-3, 11-5, 11-7 (36m)
Mazen Hesham (Egy) 3-1 Iker Pajares (Esp 11-8, 11-9, 6-11, 12-10 (56m)
[5] Marwan ElShorbagy (Eng) 3-0 Juan Vargas (Col) 11-6, 11-4, 11-5 (29m)
Mohamed Abouelghar (Egy) 3-0 Curtis Malik (Eng) 11-5, 13-11, 11-9 (39m)
[8] Youssef Ibrahim (Ey) 3-0 Timmy Brownell (Usa) 13-11, 12-10, 11-7 (35m)
Dimitri Steinmann (Sui) 3-0 [wc] Alex Lau (Hkg) 11-7, 11-8, 11-4 (39m)
[2] Paul Coll (Nzl) 3-0 Raphael Kandra (Ger) 11-4, 11-8, 11-2 (28m)
Aly Abou Eleinen (Egy) 3-1 Auguste Dussourd (Fra) 8-11, 11-1, 13-11, 11-8 (53m)
Baptiste Masotti (Fra) 3-2 [4] Karim Abdel Gawad (Egy) 11-8, 9-11, 13-11, 7-11, 13-11 (88m)
Miguel Rodriguez (Col) 3-2 Mohamed ElSherbini (Egy) 6-11, 11-9, 11-5, 10-12, 11-1 (78m)
The HK View : Simmi Chan the sole home survivor
Round One : Masotti downs Gawad as Sabrina wins Sobhy Sister Showdown
A busy opening day at Hong Kong Squash Centre saw 32 Round One matches across four courts at Hong Kong Squash Centre with just two seeding upsets and one home survivor.
The upset came in the final match of the day as France’s Baptiste Masotti downed fourth seed Karim Abdel Gawad in a five game thriller. After sharing the first four games – with an interruption after Masotti’s racket clipped Gawad’s nose – Masotti edged to a 10-6 advantage in the decider. Gawad save those four match balls, and another at 11-10, but Masotti finally clinched the victory on his sixth opportunity.
“I’m so proud of keeping my nerve today,” he said, “especially in the fifth when I was 10-6 up, and I played some awful shots. I was tense because beating these kind of guys is huge and I respect him a lot.”
That was one of four men’s five-game matches that exceeded the hour mark – Miguel Rodriguez over Mohamed ElSherbini in the final session, plus HKFC Champion Joel Makin over Declan James and Leonel Cardenas over Sebastien Bonmalais in first batch of matches.
Sixth seed Mohamed ElShorbagy‘s four game win over Fares Dessouky ensured that he completed fifteen unbroken years in the world’s top ten.
It wasn’t a great day for the hosts, with Henry Leung, Tong Tsz-Wing, Tomato Ho, Alex Lau and Lee Ka Yi all failing to progress before Chan Sin Yuk produced the only home win – as she did in last week’s HKFC Open – beating last-minute entrant Grace Gear in straight games.
The upset in the women’s draw came as Sabrina Sobhy gained her first PSA victory over elder sister Amanda, the eighth seed, twice coming from a game down.
“It was a very emotional match for me,” said Sabrina, “I’m incredibly happy as I’ve never beaten Amanda before in a legitimate tournament in 10 plus years. Regardless the win it’s more about how I played. I feel like I was down and out in the fourth, but I pulled it together and I didn’t want to go home. I was really happy with that.”
Elsewhere there were five game wins for Tesni Murphy and Kenzy Ayman.
Round two begins tomorrow with eight matches from the top half of the draws, all on the all-glass Centre Court.
The HK View : Simmi Chan the sole home survivor
