World No.18 Baptiste Masotti delivered an quality performance to topple No.4 seed Karim Gawad on the opening day of the Milwaukee Hong Kong Squash Open 2025, defeating the former World No.1 in a thrilling five-game encounter at the Platinum-level event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a match which was packed with drama, no moment more so than late in the third game when Gawad sustained a significant nose injury when running into the back of his opponent, it was Masotti who eventually claimed his first-ever win over Gawad by an 11-8, 9-11, 13-11, 7-11, 13-11 scoreline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After returning to court following a 15-minute injury break and seeing the third game slip through his grasp, Gawad responded impressively to firstly send the game to a decider, and later save four match balls to take the fifth game into a deserved tie-break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Masotti saw a fifth match ball come and go before finally clinching victory when he clipped a powerful forehand beyond the defences of Gawad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the 88-minute win, Masotti said: \u201cI wish Karim [Gawad] a good recovery for his nose. It happened at the end of the third game. It was accidental \u2013 he went on my back, it was a loose shot, and I tried to give him access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI can feel it wasn\u2019t great and I\u2019m so sorry. Karim is someone I respect so much. I\u2019m so proud of keeping my nerve today, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elsewhere, World No.44 Sabrina Sobhy claimed her first-ever victory over older sister Amanda on the PSA Squash Tour after fighting back from 2-1 down to defeat the World No.11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sabrina, who lost out to Amanda at the U.S. Open in October, turned the tables from that day with a quality performance of her own, moving through to the second round of the Platinum-level event by a 9-11, 14-12, 8-11, 12-10, 11-6 scoreline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After missing out on the majority of the 2024\/25 season with a serious wrist injury, this performance marked another step in Sobhy\u2019s impressive comeback season, with the 28-year-old recently lifting the Copper-level St. James Expression title and showing signs today of the squash which saw her previously reach as high as World No.13 in the PSA Rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite falling 2-1 down and 5-1 down in the fourth, Sabrina kept her composure to firstly clinch a tight fourth-game tie-break and subsequently move through to the win after 54 minutes on court at the Hong Kong Squash Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m still in a bit of disbelief,\u201d Sabrina said after the match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was a very emotional match for me \u2013 I\u2019m incredibly happy as I\u2019ve never beaten her [Amanda Sobhy] before in a legitimate tournament in 10 plus years. Regardless of beating Amanda, it\u2019s more about how I played in that match. I feel like I was down and out in the fourth, but I pulled it together and I didn\u2019t want to go home. I was really happy with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was glad we played earlier in the season [at the U.S. Open] just to get it out of the way \u2013 I felt like there was much less noise here in Hong Kong. Everyone on the East coast is asleep and there\u2019s not as much hype and we had the draw well in advance so we knew what was expected so I had a bit more time to prepare.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elsewhere, four-time Hong Kong Open champion Mohamed ElShorbagy marked his 15th consecutive year in the top ten of the PSA Men\u2019s Rankings with an impressive four-game victory over Egypt\u2019s Fares Dessouky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ElShorbagy, who currently only sits behind squash legend Jansher Khan in the number of Hong Kong Open titles won, set-up a tantalising second-round tie with up-and-coming English talent Jonah Bryant after defeating World No.13 Dessouky by an 11-7, 17-19, 16-14, 11-5 scoreline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the match, ElShorbagy said: \u201cI have always felt that Hong Kong is the toughest Platinum event of the year. You have to be really mentally strong to win this event. Everyone is dealing with jet lag and everyone comes here tired as well, as it\u2019s the last event of the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always been very interesting to see who can deal with all of this and still get the results. I love challenges, and I realised that this was probably always the toughest Platinum event to play. Whenever it is a challenge, I am going to go after it. I have always had good results here and I\u2019m looking forward to trying to get more wins here this week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other winners on day one of action included Hong Kong Wildcard Chan Sin Yuk, who defeated England\u2019s Grace Gear in straight games, and World No.4 Joel Makin, who survived a major first-round scare as he battled past fellow British player Declan James in a marathon five-game, 94-minute encounter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After securing a place in the second round against No.5 seed Tinne Gilis, World No.38 Sin Yuk said: \u201cI feel great. I had a last-minute change of draw and Grace [Gear] came probably yesterday morning and I knew it was an opportunity for both of us. I\u2019m glad I took advantage of it and got through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI forget about all that [playing in front of her home crowd] so there\u2019s less pressure on me, but it\u2019s great to have the home crowd supporting me. Every time I win a point, there\u2019s someone cheering me, and that\u2019s definitely motivating for me, and it helped.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were also wins for all other major seeds in both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s draws on day one of the Platinum event, with eight-time World Champion Nour ElSherbini bouncing back from a game behind to defeat England\u2019s Jasmine Hutton and No.2 seed Amina Orfi looking in powerful form during her three-game win over Scotland\u2019s Georgia Adderley. World No.1 Mostafa Asal and World No.2 Paul Coll, meanwhile, got the better of India\u2019s Abhay Singh and Germany\u2019s Raphael Kandra in straight games, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Men\u2019s Round One: <\/strong>[1] Mostafa Asal (EGY) bt. Abhay Singh (IND) 3-0: 11-3, 11-5, 11-7 (36m); Mazen Hesham (EGY) bt Iker Pajares (ESP) 3-1: 11-8, 11-9, 6-11, 12-10 (56m); [7] Victor Crouin (FRA) bt Greg Lobban (SCO) 3-1: 11-0, 11-4, 6-11, 11-4 (40m); Mohamad Zakaria (EGY) bt Bernat Jaume (ESP) 3-0: 11-5, 11-5, 11-6 (36m); Jonah Bryant (ENG) bt Henry Leung (HKG) 3-0: 11-8, 11-9, 11-8 (37m); [6] Mohamed ElShorbagy (ENG) bt Fares Dessouky (EGY) 3-1: 11-7, 17-19, 16-14, 11-5 (54m); Leonel Cardenas (MEX) bt Sebastien Bonmalais (FRA) 3-2: 11-8, 9-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6 (75m); [3] Joel Makin (WAL) bt Declan James (ENG) 3-2: 11-5, 8-11, 11-8, 12-14, 11-5 (94m); Baptiste Masotti (FRA) bt [4] Karim Gawad (EGY) 3-2: 11-8, 9-11, 13-11, 7-11, 13-11 (88m); Miguel Rodriguez (COL) bt Mohamed ElSherbini (EGY) 3-2: 6-11, 11-9, 11-5, 10-12, 11-1 (78m); [8] Youssef Ibrahim (EGY) bt Timothy Brownell (USA) 3-0: 13-11, 12-10, 11-7 (35m); Dimitri Steinmann (SUI) bt Alex Lau (HKG) 3-0: 11-7, 11-8, 11-4 (53m); [5] Marwan ElShorbagy (ENG) bt Juan Vargas (COL) 3-0: 11-6, 11-4, 11-5 (29m); Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY) bt Curtis Malik (ENG) 3-0: 11-5, 13-11, 11-9 (39m); Aly Abou Eleinen (EGY) bt Auguste Dussourd (FRA) 3-1: 8-11, 11-1, 13-11, 11-8 (53m); [2] Paul Coll (NZL) bt Raphael Kandra (GER) 3-0: 11-4, 11-8, 11-2 (28m)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women\u2019s Round One: <\/strong>[1] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) bt Hollie Naughton (CAN) 3-0: 0-0 ret. (0m); Tesni Murphy (WAL) bt Malak Khafagy (EGY) 3-2: 11-7, 5-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-6 (55m); Melissa Alves (FRA) bt Tsz-Wing Tong (HKG) 3-0: 11-5, 11-5, 11-3 (23m); [7] Sivasangari Subramaniam (MAS) bt. Lucy Turmel (ENG) 3-0: 11-8, 11-8, 11-9 (23m); Sabrina Sobhy (USA) bt [8] Amanda Sobhy (USA) 3-2: 9-11, 14-12, 8-11, 12-10, 11-6 (54m); Kenzy Ayman (EGY) bt Hana Moataz (EGY) 3-2: 12-10, 14-16, 11-6, 5-11, 11-7 (47m); Hana Ramadan (EGY) bt Aira Azman (MAS) 3-1: 8-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-8 (33m); [3] Nour ElSherbini (EGY) bt Jasmine Hutton (ENG) 3-1: 6-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-2 (37m); [4] Olivia Weaver (USA) bt Mariam Metwally (EGY) 3-0: 11-3, 11-7, 14-12 (31m); Nele Gilis (BEL) bt Ka Yi Lee (HKG) 3-0: 11-7, 11-3, 11-5 (30m); [WC] Sin Yuk Chan (HKG) bt Grace Gear (ENG) 3-0: 11-4, 11-7, 11-3 (24m); [5] Tinne Gilis (BEL) bt Rachel Arnold (MAS) 3-0: 11-8, 11-5, 11-3 (23m); [6] Satomi Watanabe (JPN) bt Marina Stefanoni (USA) 3-1: 11-7, 12-14, 11-7, 11-2 (41m); Sana Ibrahim (EGY) bt Tomato Ho (HKG) 3-0: 11-6, 11-6, 11-8 (31m); Aifa Azman (MAS) bt Zeina Mickawy (EGY) 3-0: 11-5, 12-10, 11-6 (25m); [2] Amina Orfi (EGY) bt Georgia Adderley (SCO) 3-0: 11-9, 11-4, 11-1 (34m)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" World No.18 Baptiste Masotti delivered an quality performance to topple No.4 seed Karim Gawad on the opening day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-6673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-squash"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Karim-Abdel-Gawad_compressed-scaled.jpg",2560,1710,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Karim-Abdel-Gawad_compressed-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Karim-Abdel-Gawad_compressed-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Karim-Abdel-Gawad_compressed-768x513.jpg",640,428,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Karim-Abdel-Gawad_compressed-1024x684.jpg",640,428,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Karim-Abdel-Gawad_compressed-1536x1026.jpg",1536,1026,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Karim-Abdel-Gawad_compressed-2048x1368.jpg",2048,1368,true],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Karim-Abdel-Gawad_compressed-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Karim-Abdel-Gawad_compressed-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"International<\/a>","tag_info":"International","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Karim-Abdel-Gawad_compressed-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6674,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6673\/revisions\/6674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}