R1 : [6] Miguel Rodriguez (Col) 3-2 Youssef Soliman (Egy) 7-11, 11-3, 11-7, 4-11, 11-9 (84m)
Miguel Rodriguez comes through a marathon five-setter, edging past Youssef Soliman 11-9 in the fifth.
The young Egyptian started strongly, but the experienced ‘Colombian Cannonball’ upped his game to take the next two games, only to see Soliman raise his level to set up a decider.
The fifth was close, Rodriguez holding on to a slender lead, but it was a trio of strokes given away by Soliman at the end of the game that took Rodriguez over the line.
Miguel
All of the first rounds are very challenging nowadays.
Especially playing a local player is tough. I’m glad to make it through, it was up and down and was a tough game for me to settle on the court. I was playing good games but then he was trying to slow down the pace and take his time to recover.
I had to fight in my head to keep playing and do my best and it went all the way to the fifth game. I didn’t have time to play on the glass court and for me it’s always to play in the first round, especially travelling from Colombia.
I came here a week ago and I’m doing my best. It wasn’t my best match or performance, but I’m taking this as a positive thing to play better in the next round.
There's getting out of the way, and then there is the Miguel way of doing it? ✈️🇨🇴@MiguelSquash showing his jumping ability to get out of the way, before winning the rally to take the third game!#AirMiguel #BlackBallOpen pic.twitter.com/1oVr3k7Ncq
— PSA World Tour (@PSAWorldTour) December 13, 2020
