BUSY MONTH ON THE PSA TOUR

Some brilliant achievements over the long month of May from our professional players, who have been jumping around the globe racking up thousands of air miles, along with a handful of impressive results!

Tom Ford finished off his tour of South Africa with a $10,000 event in Cape Town, where he took out a few local favourites to reach the semi finals, and lost in a very close 3-2 match against the world number 41 Mohd Ali Anwar Reda. After a 4 weeks of tournaments, he then flew home to compete in the qualifying of the British Open with very little rest, and still managed to get a game off Nasir Iqbal. His latest jump in form, including his first PSA tour title win, has taken him to 97 in the world.

We think this picture perfectly demonstrates how much Tom has grown to love life on tour, meditating on a rock in Kriens, Switzerland with Sam Ellis (left) and Yannick Lindemann (right). After the British Open Tom flew to Kriens to play in another $10,000 tournament, this time playing number 3 seed Andrew Wagih in the first round, where he had a match ball but couldn’t quite squeeze out the match. Still, very exciting signs from Tom!

The Elshorbagy brothers then took the stage in the main draw of the British Open, with Marwan putting up a good fight against Ramy Ashour and showing real potential for the months ahead. Mohamed played some brilliant squash on his route through to the semi finals, where he lost in a very tight 3-2 to an incredibly resilient Nick Matthew. Unbelievable match to watch.

Marwan Elshorbagy then flew to Guatemala along with another one of the UWE boys, Antonio de la Torre, to compete in the Internacional Sporta Open. Antonio made it through the first round of qualifying against a fellow Guatemalan, but unfortunately lost to Joe Chapman before making the main draw. Great to see Antonio getting out there to high level tournaments like this, gaining invaluable experience against top professional players that will help his game develop. Marwan, being the number 1 seed, proved his place by winning the tournament while only dropping one game! Brilliant win for Marwan, also helping to solidify his recently achieved top 20 PSA ranking. Antonio also competed in the Guatemala National Championships, where he finished in second place, great stuff Antonio! Here they are below looking quite chuffed…

Mike Harris made his way over to Switzerland, a very popular destination for professionals at the moment, to compete in the Inno Wood Open. He held his nerve and squeezed through a shaky first match against Claudio Pinto, but lost a tight quarter final match against Scotsman Kevin Moran. Mike then moved on to Jersey, for a $15,000 PSA event, and took on the local that nobody wanted to play in the first round, Nick Taylor. He held very strong to win the first two games in tie breaks, and finished off the 3^rd game with ease for a solid 3-0 win. Unfortunately Mike couldn’t keep up his run, and lost in the qualifying finals to a strong opponent, Lewis Walters. Also, nice to finally get some quality pictures of Mike playing! If only he’d swing a little slower…

Last, but certainly not least! A HUGE mention for Sean Conroy, who has had a great string of results this month that will see him soar up the rankings. The Irishman started in Angers, France, where he took out Dutchman Bart Ravelli 3-2 in the qualifying finals. He started strong in the main draw, by going 1-0 up on Tom De Mulder, but unfortunately went down 3-1. Sean then flew to Madrid, tough life eh! He lost in the qualifying finals, but with a withdrawal of a top seed in the main draw, Sean won the lucky loser spot, luck of the Irish! He won his first round against Pascal Gomez 3-0, and then beat Claudio Pinto 3-2 to reach his first ever semi final of a PSA. Brilliant performances from Sean, and hopefully he can use the confidence he’s gained from these wins to keep taking his game to new heights. Maybe one day, Sean will find himself playing on Squash TV, instead of watching all of the matches from behind the glass back!