Karim Abdel Gawad avoided a major upset in round two of the HSC 2024 Houston Men’s Squash Open, coming from two games down to beat the USA’s Timothy Brownell.
The No.4 seed, who moved back inside the top five of the world’s rankings this week, came into this event after picking up the Pittsburgh Open title a few days ago, but was far from his best against the American lefty here.
Brownell had described the prospect of facing Gawad as a ‘dream’ after his round-one win, and he started the match with intent, displaying the free-spirited style of a player with little to lose.
He was bouncing around the court with energy and took game one with a backhand drive which wrong-footed Gawad, winning game two with a deep forehand beyond the Egyptian’s reach a few minutes later.
That winner came on Brownell’s fourth game ball, with Gawad having saved the first three, and perhaps that helped to tilt the momentum back in the fourth seed’s favour.
He established an early game-three lead that he would never relinquish, and controlled much of game four too, despite Brownell requesting a change of ball at its start.
A misjudged boast into the tin from the Brownell racket on Gawad’s third game ball ensured a decider would be needed, and it was the experience of the Egyptian that shone through in the end, winning a somewhat scrappy fifth on forehand drop, with Brownell’s calls for a video review falling on deaf ears, his own reviews already used up.
“I had a very slow start,” Gawad said after his win. “In the first two games, I couldn’t read him at all, I couldn’t see the ball very well, so I was moving a bit slowly.
“After the second game, I had to re-focus again and I tried to push mentally as much as I could, tried to forget about the score and play the match as if it was the first game.
“Starting from the third, I started moving better, started to read him much better than at the beginning and luckily it went my way at the end.”
His opponent in the last eight will be fellow Egyptian Aly Abou Eleinen, who came from a game down to beat Baptiste Masotti in the final match of the day.
There was little to separate the two players through the first two games, which were shared one apiece, but the Egyptian ran away with victory in the end, winning 17 of the last 19 points across games three and four.
“It was an exciting match,” he said after victory.
“There was a lot of fast-paced, slow-paced, all-court squash, so I’m super happy and proud of myself that I got through today.”
World No.1 Ali Farag and sixth seed Tarek Momen also won, completing the Egyptian clean sweep on day two.
The remaining matches in round two of the HSC 2024 Houston Men’s Squash Open take place from 17:00 (GMT-6) tomorrow, February 15th. Watch the action live on SQUASHTV.
Results: HSC 2024 Houston Men’s Squash Open RD2 (top half)
[1] Ali Farag (EGY) bt Farkas Balazs (HUN) 3-0: 11-9, 11-9, 11-7 (27m)
[6] Tarek Momen (EGY) bt Leung Chi Hin Henry (HKG) 3-0: 11-5, 11-6, 11-8 (31m)
[4] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) bt Timothy Brownell (USA) 3-2: 6-11, 8-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-8 (70m)
Aly Abou Eleinen (EGY) bt [8] Baptiste Masotti (FRA) 3-1: 9-11, 14-12, 11-5, 11-2 (66m)
Draw: HSC 2024 Houston Men’s Squash Open RD2 (bottom half)
Cesar Salazar (MEX) v [2] Mohamed Elshorbagy (ENG)
[7] Miguel Rodriguez (COL) v Sebastien Bonmalais (FRA)
[3] Mostafa Asal (EGY) v Juan Camilo Vargas (COL)
Karim El Hammamy (EGY) v [5] Mazen Hesham (EGY)
