Toufik Mekhalfi (Photo PSA)
Nathan Lake and Toufik Mekhalfi staved off late surges from their respective opponents on the opening day of Squash in the Land to progress to round two of the Silver-level event.
Lake fended off a comeback from Matthew Lai to win 3-2, while Mekhalfi also triumphed by the same scoreline against Rui Soares to book a place in the second round in Cleveland.
World No.49 Lake, who’s ranked 39 places higher in the PSA Rankings than Lai, was 2-1 up before the Hong Konger battled back to level the match by clinching the fourth 11-9. However the 33-year-old kept his composure in the deciding game to close out a 11-7, 10-12, 11-6, 9-11, 11-5 victory at Cleveland Skating Club.
Mekhalfi, who claimed the biggest win of his career so far last week in the first round of the Rich Venus Karachi Open Gold-level event, was 2-1 up before Soares forced a deciding fifth game. Mekhalfi eased to an 8-2 lead before Soares powered back and was within three points of levelling and sending the fifth into a tiebreak at 7-10 down, however Mekhalfi was able to keep Soares at bay to prevail 11-6, 9-11, 11-1, 7-11, 11-7.
“This is technically a first-ever Silver first round win – today it was tough. It was difficult conditions and I’m really happy with that,” Mekhalfi said.
“It was a cheeky match because it was not my best match because the conditions were not easy. If you are not hitting the ball well, the ball was going into the middle of the court and it was difficult to find my length. It got better at points but not during all the match.”
In the women’s draw, Marta Dominguez claimed an impressive victory over Nour Heikal at Urban Squash Cleveland to progress to the second round.
The World No.59 beat World No.44 Heikal 11-6, 4-11, 11-6, 11-8 to tee up a second round clash with the tournament’s No.3 seed Jasmine Hutton.
Home favourites Audrey Berling and Dixon B Hill had their campaigns in Cleveland cut short at the hands of Tomato Ho and Grace Gear, respectively.
Results
Women’s Round One: Tomato Ho (HKG) bt. Audrey Berling (USA) 3-0: 11-4, 11-3, 11-1 (16m); Marta Dominguez (ESP) bt. Nour Heikal (EGY) 3-1: 11-6, 4-11, 11-6, 11-8 (32m); Nour Aboulmakarim (EGY) bt. Hannah Craig (IRL) 3-1: 11-6, 9-11, 11-8, 11-4 (39m); Alicia Mead (ENG) bt. Nicole Bunyan (CAN) 3-0: 11-4, 11-6, 11-9 (26m); Grace Gear (ENG) bt. Dixon B Hill (USA) 3-0: 11-5, 11-9, 14-12 (30m); Sabrina Sobhy (USA) bt. Alina Bushma (UKR) 3-0: 11-3, 11-1, 11-2 (24m); Lucy Beecroft (ENG) bt. Hayley Ward (RSA) 3-1: 11-5, 11-2, 8-11, 11-6 (32m); Saran Nghiem (ENG) bt. Madeleine Hylland (NOR) 3-0: 12-10, 11-2, 11-9 (26m)
Men’s Round One: Melvil Scianimanico (FRA) bt. Omar Said (EGY) 3-1: 7-11, 11-5, 11-3, 11-2 (35m); Ivan Perez (ESP) bt. Yassin Elshafei (EGY) 3-1: 11-2, 11-9, 9-11, 12-10 (51m); Toufik Mekhalfi (FRA) bt. Rui Soares (POR) 3-2: 11-6, 9-11, 11-1, 7-11, 11-7 (55m); Veer Chotrani (IND) bt. Ignatius Lahorra (USA) 3-0: 11-3, 11-3, 11-4 (24m); Mazen Hesham (EGY) bt. Mohamed Nasser (EGY) 3-1: 9-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-9 (47m); Nathan Lake (ENG) bt. Matthew Lai (HKG) 3-2: 11-7, 10-12, 11-6, 9-11, 11-5 (54m); Muhammad Asim Khan (PAK) bt. Ryunosuke Tsukue (JPN) 3-1: 11-7, 11-4, 13-15, 11-6 (37m); Perry Malik (ENG) bt. Marwan Tamer (EGY) 3-1: 11-3, 7-11, 11-4, 11-9 (47m)
