R1: Karim El H gets his first win in 9 matches… Training with Mosaad

Karim : I played with Ivan in January, in Pakistan, on the glass court. But I feel that he has improved since then. His results are the proof of it. He won a couple of copper events and had some good matches in Silver.

I just had the worst 8 months of my life.

Since SquashonFire, in February, I got injured, sprinting on the track, my hamstring snapped. And when you get injured, my mind also gets injured. If you heal, you don’t full heal. You have to do some mental work.

And then, when I started playing again, from March to the end of the season, I couldn’t really play a whole match. I would win a game, and that would be it.

The rest of the season was rough, I didn’t manage to get a win from Feb to October, 8 or 9 matches, 0 win. It’s tough.

So winning today is actually very meaningful for me especially against an improved Ivan. So maybe the “engine” will start again, at 30 past, you never know…

I’ve started training with Capt Omar Ibrahim as my fitness coach, and with Omar Mosaad, he is doing a great job. He is very ambitious, he looks at every single detail, like he’s been doing all his career as a player. He is now trying to pass this knowledge to the next generation.

Omar has been my training partner for 8 or 9 years. And I never wanted him to leave the Tour, so it’s good for me. And I hope we can do a great job together.