Abhay Singh (Photo PSA)
Abhay Singh and Iker Pajares are through to the quarter finals of a Gold-level event for the first time after ousting No.7 seed Aly Abou Eleinen and No.6 seed Youssef Soliman, respectively, at the Grasshopper Cup squash tournament in Zurich.
Abhay, featuring at the Grasshopper Cup for the first time, overcame Eleinen 2-0 to secure his maiden last eight spot at a Gold event.
The World No.24 trailed 8-5 in the opener before pegging the score back to 8-8 and saved both of Eleinen’s game balls before converting in the tiebreak.
Abhay, who defeated Eleinen 3-2 at the El Gouna International earlier this month, had to withstand an Eleinen comeback in the second when the Egyptian was 7-3 down before levelling, but the strength of Abhay’s backhand helped him win 12-10, 11-9.
“What a match!” he said afterwards.
“In the deep end of both games I had to show some real fight to come back with the deficit in the first. I think that was deja vu with a similar situation
“I had it with him in El Gouna. Credit to Jimbo [James Willstrop] – he put together a good plan as I was going to be in a deficit in the first and that paid off.”
Pajares, who’s reached the last eight of Platinum events previously, produced another impressive performance to down Soliman in straight games having taken out Swiss No.1 Dimitri Steinmann in round one.
Home hopes were dashed after 14-time Swiss national champion Nicolas Mueller was defeated by Joel Makin.
Mueller, the last Swiss player remaining following six exits from the host nation in round one, lost 2-0 to the World No.5.
Elsewhere, former World Champion Karim Gawad downed Auguste Dussourd 2-0.
In the women’s draw, World No.13 Jasmine Hutton overturned a 1-0 deficit to beat Melissa Alves 2-1.
Hutton came into Zurich off the back of winning the biggest title of her career to date at the Hamburg Open 2026 last week, but the Englishwoman squandered five game balls in the first game as Alves capitalised to draw first blood.
However Hutton rediscovered some of the excellent squash she played last week to land the Bronze-level title in Hamburg to complete the comeback with a 10-12, 11-7, 11-9 success.
“I was feeling quite flat today and I didn’t really show up,” she said afterwards.
“I didn’t really have that fire in my belly that I usually have, but I’m just really pleased I stuck in and dug deep and came through in three.”
The tournament’s No.2 seed Satomi Watanabe came through a tough encounter with Rowan Elaraby 11-8, 11-9 , Fayrouz Aboelkheir downed fellow Egyptian Nour Heikal 11-9, 11-7 and England’s Georgina Kennedy defeated her compatriot Grace Gear 11-6, 11-5 .
Second Round Results
Men’s: [4] Joel Makin (WAL) bt. Nicolas Mueller (SUI) 2-0: 11-8, 11-5 (26m); Iker Pajares (ESP) bt. [6] Youssef Soliman (EGY) 2-0: 11-6, 11-8 (41m); Abhay Singh (IND) bt. [7] Aly Abou Eleinen (EGY) 2-0: 12-10, 11-9 (35m); [2] Karim Gawad (EGY) bt. Auguste Dussourd (FRA) 2-0: 11-7, 11-8 (29m)
Women’s: [4] Fayrouz Aboelkheir (EGY) bt. Nour Heikal (EGY) 2-0: 11-9, 11-7 (18m); [5] Georgina Kennedy (ENG) bt. Grace Gear (ENG) 2-0: 11-6, 11-5 (18m); [8] Jasmine Hutton (ENG) bt. Melissa Alves (FRA) 2-1: 10-12, 11-7, 11-9 (23m); [2] Satomi Watanabe (JPN) bt. Rowan Elaraby (EGY) 2-0: 11-8, 11-9 (25m)
