2020 Men's Gold Reports REPORTS

R1 : Abou in three, but Lucas soooo close

R1: [8] Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY) bt Lucas Serme (FRA) 12-10, 11-8, 12-10 (50m)

As usual, an up and down performance from the Egyptian – when he is down, he is down, but when he is up, what a pleasure!

Lucas, with Enzo in his heart and head, was trying to pay homage to the French boy who passed away today. He had three game balls in the first first, 10/7, but just couldn’t close and it’s the Bullet that took the opener in 19m. Lots of work produced there.

Abou kept the errors down in the second, only three, taking the most comfortable game of the match, overturning the French good start, 3/1 and levelling 4/4, then zooming at 8/4 11/8 in 11m.

Third close again 5/5, 6/6, Abou match ball 10/8, errors creeping in (4) but the third match ball is the one, and it’s 12/10 in 16m for the Egyptian, who take his first victory against Lucas after two losses…

Lucas

Not easy emotionally. I was trying to use the memory of Enzo to have a bit of a new perspective on life, on the tournament, of our career, what we are doing, and turned a bit philosophical really. So I’m a bit disappointed not to manage to take a game at least, not to win…

With my coaches Renan [Lavigne] and Mehdi [Renaï], we put in place a game plan that took on board Abou’s ins and outs! I wanted to show him I was present physically, that it would be hard to beat me.  But I gave him too many angles, I complicated things when I didn’t need to, and he strung the points nicely, he made me run a heck of a lot too!

I was never comfortable on that court, I wasn’t accurate, not aggressive enough.

I’ll regret that first game, I had 3 game balls, but one error, two wrong choices of shots and two winners, it goes so fast with him…

Abou

The third game was crucial and I thought more on his favourite side, the backhand, I wouldn’t have the advantage. I switched to the forehand and hit some good winners so I just went for it.

That last rally was crucial. I felt like he was getting a bit of momentum and confidence. I thought that going into a fourth game would be tricky so I knew the importance of it and I was very happy to get it finished there.