LET'S GET THE PARTY STARTED
The Paris Squash 2023 is now underway! The atmosphere was electric in opening night on Saturday at the Palais de Tokyo, it was just the perfect way to kick off the crazy week that lies ahead of us. Every morning, we'll give you a brief overview of what happened the day before, on and off the court, as well as the day's schedule. Day 1 here we come ...
STORY OF THE DAY: THE SHOW IS ON
Éric Nizard, president of the organizing association - Paris Squash Project – likes to say that entertainment is one of the three pillars of the event. If you've read our pre-tournament piece, you know what the two others are ... He should take comfort from the fact that opening night was a real show on Saturday, in front of a packed crowd. To start with, we had two exhibition/clash of generation matches, pitting the two legends of French squash, Grégory Gaultier and Thierry Lincou, against two of the best juniors in the world, English boy Jonah Bryant and France's Melvil Scianimanico. To cut a long story short, experience prevailed over youth ...
Squash, theatre and music, all the ingredients were there to spend a good opening night at the Paris Squash 2023 (Photo credit: Jérôme Elhaïk)
The night continued with some live music with some renowned artists Rita Mitsouko's guitarist Paul Pavillon, and then the organizers took the microphone to tell us about the crazy journey that they went through to build this event from scratch. Now it's tournament's time, action begin at 12pm on Sunday on the glass court!
SUNDAY'S MENU: THE CHOICE IS YOURS
There are two draws in a Platinum tournament, 48 men and 48 women, and #1 to #16 seeds receive a bye in round 1. Squash stars will be taking over the Palais du Tokyo on Monday, but before that there will be French interest almost all day long on the glass court on Sunday - see below THE FRENCH CORNER. Except for the last match between Switzerland's Dimitri Steinmann (World ranking 25) and England's George Parker (WR42). They are both talented and high-tempered, no doubt that it'll be entertaining and the ref should be called upon ... On recent form, Steinmann is the favorite, but Parker will eager to redeem himself after a difficult 2022/23 season. There are also 24 matches spread in our 3 partner clubs and we have selected one to watch in each:
👉 No need to take the metro, the Jeu de Paume is at walking distance from the Palais de Tokyo. If he is on, talented Indian Ramit Tandon (WR38) is capable of creating an upset against the solid Spaniard Iker Pajares (WR20), match scheduled at 2:15pm.
👉 There are a lot of expectations around Amina Orfi (WR43). The two-time world junior champion kicks off her campaign against South African Alexandra Fuller (WR26), at Montmartre Squash at 4pm.
There are a lot of expectations around Amina Orfi (Photo credit: PSA World Tour)
👉 Victor Crouin likes to do his homework, and we wouldn't be suprised to see him at the Stade Français at 12:45pm, to take notes on his round 2 opponent: young Egyptian Yahya Elnawasany (WR34) or Mexican veteran Cesar Salazar (WR39).
FRENCH CORNER: WHAT A DAY AHEAD...
Prepare your French flags, there are 11 home players featuring in round 1! 7 of them will be on the glass court at the Palais de Tokyo.
👉 It'll be a baptism of fire for teenagers Antonin Romieu and Ana Munos, who received a wildcard from the organizers. They'll have nothing to lose against much higher-ranked opponents, Leonel Cardenas (WR28) and Tomato Ho (WR24).
👉 Auguste Dussourd (WR21), Énora Villard (WR46) and Marie Stéphan (WR47) landed in Paris with a European medal in their luggage ... If he carries on his current form, the former is expected to go through against Hong Kong's Henry Leung (WR49), while his two compatriots will be the underdogs against Aifa Azman (WR29) and Nadine Shahin (WR25).
👉 Here is a figure that should give some confidence to Grégoire Marche (WR22): he won 5 of his 6 last titles on home soil! The Acrobat will be the favourite against Rory Stewart (WR48) but we know that the Scotsman is capable of playing above his ranking.
👉 France's best chance in the women's draw, Mélissa Alves (WR21) is very eager to do well in Paris, and she also will want to get revenge against England's Katie Malliff (WR41) who beat her earlier in 2023.
Elsewhere: the 100% French match of round 1 takes place at the Stade Français between Sébastien Bonmalais (WR30) and Lucas Serme (WR47). Winners of the Wildcard Playoffs, Ella Galova and Toufik Mekhalfi will both face Egyptian opposition, in the likes of Fayrouz Aboelkheir (WR33) and Aly Abou Eleinen (WR23) – at Montmartre and Stade Français, respectively.
NUMBER OF THE DAY: 13
This is the number of French players featuring in the Paris Squash 2023, and it's never been so high in a Platinum event! The home crowd hope that as many of them as possible will join Victor Crouin and Baptiste Masotti, who have a bye thanks to their world ranking.
Auguste Dussourd – who just clinched the silver medal at the Europen Indiviual Championship – is one of the 13 French players featuring in the Paris Squash 2023 (Photo credit: Hasta La Vista)
PIC OF THE DAY
True legends of squash in France and beyond, Grégory Gaultier et Thierry Lincou had to be there for the kick off of the Paris Squash 2023 (Photo credit: Jérôme Elhaïk)
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Organizing this tournament, it's been an emotional rollercoaster but once the train is moving forward you can no longer stop!" Éric Nizard, president of the Paris Squash Project association.
Photo credit: Jérôme Elhaïk
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📺 Glass court matches are shown for free on Sport en France with commentary in French.
📺 Side court matches are shown on SquashTV.
Results, schedule, venues etc. => live scoring
By Jérôme Elhaïk
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