2026 Day ONE : Qualifying begins at OWest

Youssef : I have been working and preparing for this match for two months! I am focusing on this tournament only.

I focused on the forehand. I know he is a very physical player but so am I… I kept focusing on my game plan. After I lost the first game, I didn’t panic because I knew I was playing good squash, my shots were good and accurate.

I train with Omar Abdel Aziz, the Legendary coach, in Wadi Degla, and Diana Karim is my physical coach. I work with Eltarabolsy, my favourite coach.

Mohamed :  I went in the match knowing that he was seeded in the event, but on the rankings, I’m higher than he is. So it gave me some confidence. I didn’t feel I was much pressured, I was pretty confident, which was a good mix of both.

I was really excited for the match, last qualifications I did really well, and the British Open, so I was really looking forward to this one.

First game, a lot of pressure of course, still getting used to the court, I didn’t get to practice on them. So a bit edgy in the first game. But thank God I went through it. Second third, I was much more confident, and I’m very happy with my performance today.

I’ve been playing with Karim Ali Fathy for a long time now, three and a half or four years ago. At the time, I was ranking 450, I was never any good in the juniors, I was even thinking about stopping squash, and just continue with my engineer career. But I called up Karim and I was like, we could try giving it a shot before I graduate, make it to the top 100, and if I don’t get there, it wasn’t meant to be. Karim Ali helped a lot.

He put a lot of effort with me, mentally, physically. I wasn’t consistent in my game, I wasn’t really focused on playing squash, on the training, and everything. And he just changed my whole mentality about it, taught me discipline. He introduced discipline in my daily routine, which had a positive effect on my game. And every stage we reach, he teaches me something new. When I reached 150, then 100, top 80, also we worked on new things.

I love this guy, he is one of my best friends now, he is a top notch. Everything I am in squash, I owe it to Karim and of course to my physical coach, Hossam Shaddad. They both improved my game 180°. I wasn’t even thinking about doing squash as a career, but these two changed my whole perspective, and changed my life.

Edwin : At 7-3, I slipped and felt pain in my right ankle, a pain I’ve felt several times before. He tried to cool the ball down, so at the last moment I tried to warm it up a bit, but the ball was really dead when we restarted after the court had been cleaned. And he’s really good at that style of game. He likes a slow pace, with lots of variation between lobs and attacks. He’s very tough for me to play against because I like to play at a fast tempo.

A huge thank you to Yann [Menegaux, French National Coach], who helped me enormously today. It really shows how much a coach can make a difference.

We talked quite a bit, and we both agreed that I needed to push him back much more, because my length was too short at the start. My game is built on volleying, so if my length is short, I can’t volley.

So I made sure my first bounce landed behind the service box, and after that I was able to move forward and develop my game. In the fourth and fifth games, he only scored a few points. I’m very happy to have found the tactical key in a match where things weren’t right mentally or physically. It was a “banana skin” match, and I’m very happy to have come through it.

I’m playing either Shahjahan or Ben Smith, two very different opponents, especially in terms of build, one very tall and one very short. I’ve played Ben once before and won. I’ve never played Shahjahan. It’s a big opportunity, and I’ll give everything again tomorrow, just as I did today.

Lauren : She’s young, and I know her well. She plays all the local Egyptian junior tournaments, and I also watched her in the British Junior Open semi-final against Anahat, so I know how dangerous she is. If I lose my focus for just two or three points, she can pull off some incredible shots.

She’s very talented, she’s young, she has nothing to lose, and I knew she would give everything in this match. My concentration had to be at 100%.

My game plan was to fight for every rally, every single point, and I think that’s one of my greatest strengths. The closer the score got, the more I could feel her coming out of her comfort zone. All I had to do was keep the rally going as long as possible, and that’s how I managed to force her into errors. I was also able to catch her off guard with a few deep drop shots and some attacking shots from the back of the court…

Habiba : I feel happy about winning, and I felt pretty comfortable today on court. Playing in Egypt, having my coaches, Ziad Roshdy, Seif Nasser, my family and friends, my fitness coach was here as well, helping me warming up, and even my mental coach here, everyone supporting me, it’s all credit to them!

Ameeshenraj : He’s got a big reach on him, and I knew I had to match him.

He was very attacking and he was burying me down the backhand line, I was struggling a lot. But I knew that, although my shot quality was bad, I had to chase and match him, at least for the first half, because I felt I had a little bit of an physical edge on him.

So after the first game, my game plan was hanging for the first half of the game, to then go on and accelerate the rhythm.

You know, fitness is something that’s easy to work on, and he is a very skilful player and I’m sure we’ll see much more about him and he’ll be challenging a lot of players for sure.

I’m based in Bristol, I’m actually flatsharing with Edwin Clain, your compatriot! I graduated from the University of the West of England after 5 years of studies. I’ve been working with Hadrian Stiff for the first two years and now with Uni coach John Walton.

Nour : I was a bit nervous coming to the match today, because we already played once, and I lost, having not played my best squash.

I knew I could produce a much better squash than last time, so today I just wanted to play a good squash, play my shots and I knew I could win easily.

That was my main focus but at the end of the day, she is younger, a good player, very very fit, so I knew I had to put in my 100%. It was a bit nervewrecking, but really happy with the way I handled it.

Vitto (Ahmed Shohayeb) has been coaching me for as long as I can remember. He’s been around the club since I picked up a racquet honestly. He knows every shot, where you should play the ball, and if you listen to him and do what he says, he is spot on every time, and you can beat anyone, if you do what he says and you listen carefully.

All credit to him for this match, and it’s so nice to have him back…

Joachim : I’m currently based in the US, at Trinity, where I graduated this year. I’m based now for the time being, working with Moustafa Hamada.

I love Malaysia, and the sessions I do there are great, super super tough, but I wanted to be in the US to be closer to the tournaments, and in Malaysia, I’m far from everything.

I’d like to think I played well today, it was my first time playing Abdullah Hafez, but I saw him in tournaments so I knew how tough it was going to be. He is a huge guy, and I’m a small guy, it was a bit a David and Goliath situation!

He played pretty well, maybe I played better in terms of control of the ball, getting in front of him a bit more, and moving him a little bit more too. But he played very well.

Really looking forward to my next match…

Nasser : I just arrived from Brazil, 20 hours flight, went to bed at 4am, slept 4 hours, woke up at 8 to have my breakfast to make sure I had enough energy for the match… I feel that my brain is not functioning!

I started the season not too well because I couldn’t focus on my squash as much as I would like as I am graduating this year for my Physio studies. I had to learn a lot, work a lot, and my brain was not focused on squash.

I’m trying my best to come back, as my studies are now finished, I’m trying to get my results back. I’m at my high school ranking whereas I was studying, which is not too bad…

And I hope that now I can put my 100% on my squash, I could get to top 50, that’s my goal for this season, I’m not expecting too much.

I was working with Omar Abdel Aziz for a long time but I haven’t been able to work as much as I wanted with him recently, so hopefully I’ll be able to train more now…

Breanne : That last game, it’s a biggest steal!!! I don’t know, I was 7/5 up, I lost my length, she got tighter, I lost 5 points in a row!

I kept telling myself, focus, focus, I didn’t let the nerves get to me, I didn’t allowed myself to be too disappointed, and just focused on every point. So I’m really happy with that win.

At the start, I let her control the middle of the court, she is very good on the volley, volley drop, and I let her get on that too easily. So I started hitting it a bit lower on the front wall, and I tried to move her around the court a bit more as well.

I thought it was really good squash, I pretty enjoyed it, and I think I would have still enjoyed whether I lost to be honest…

Jana : Today I tried to listen to my coaches (Karim Ali and Adleen), and stick to my game plan, hitting my lines, attacking, doing everything well.

But in the second game, I was maybe a bit too overconfident, lost my focus a bit, and didn’t execute my plan as well as I did at the start.

But it worked out well at the end!

Ruqayya : I feel I really found my corners today, and my deep game was very good, and that what made the difference. I was able to find winners after some good shots at the back.

I’ve been working with Mosaad since May I think.

He has done everything, had a great career, was an amazing player, knows all the bits and pieces I need to know! I’m very lucky to have him in my corner.