Curtis Malik (ENG) 3-2 Omar Mosaad (EGY) 11-7, 11-9, 13-15, 7-11, 13-11 (85m)
PSAReports
The opening day of the Black Ball Squash Open 2024 saved the best action until last, with Englishman Curtis Malik defeating home favourite Omar Mosaad in a late-evening five-game thriller, taking the decider 13-11.
World No.43 Malik stunned the crowd into silence early on as he took a two-game advantage with some smart strategic play, lengthening the rallies and pulling Mosaad around all four corners of the court.
However, Mosaad, who plays and trains at the Black Ball Squash Club, used the crowd to his advantage to save a match ball in the third, and subsequently take the match all the way to a deciding game. From there, Malik saw three more match balls slip through his grasp before a no-let decision in his favour in the fifth-game tie-break sealed victory for the Englishman at the PSA World Tour gold event.
Curtis
“It was a really weird match actually. I got a good lead in the first but let him back in in the second. The third was similar to the second. I lost my focus, but he did start to play better as the match progressed, and he started to use the crowd well.
“I was feeling a bit more pressure as the match progressed, but I just decided I wanted to hit good targets into the back of the court.
“In the fifth I was literally just thinking about the training I’ve been doing recently – I’m physically feeling really fit, so I thought, why would I cheap out with cheap shots? I just decided to string out the rallies and try to get myself back into it because I felt physically pretty good.”
🎙️@curtis_malik talks us through his five-game victory over home favourite @mosaadsquash 🙌🔥 pic.twitter.com/fYNT1nWO0M
— PSA World Tour (@PSAWorldTour) April 11, 2024
