New Venue! Building 12 at Pier 70
New Venue! Building 12 at Pier 70
Egypt’s Aly El Einen and England’s Lucy Beecroft pulled off upsets over Abdullah Al Tamimi and Enora Villard on opening day of the 2022 Oracle NetSuite Open at the Olympic Club, University Club of San Francisco and Squash Zone Friday, September 30.
El Einen, world No. 58, entered his match with the world No. 30 Qatari having won both of their previous matches at the Tournament of Champions and extended his unbeaten record with an 11-8, 11-8 win in twenty-five minutes.
“Coming in I had a little bit of confidence because we just played in Qatar and I was able to win in five games, but at the same time he just had such an incredible run in Qatar Classic beating Paul Coll,” El Einen said. “Coming in I had to be patient and trust myself. In the past month I’ve put in a lot of work for this tournament and I just had to trust my training. The best of three is a little bit tricky and the first game is so important to make sure to start well.”
El Einen, a Penn graduate, will face compatriot and world No. 11 Youseff Soliman at the Olympic Club in the second round.
“Youssef and I have only played once before in El Gouna, he won in four games and it was such a good match, we played good squash. There’s no pressure on me, he’s world No. 13, I’m going to enjoy it and give it everything I can.”
Lucy Beecroft celebrates her first round win
Beecroft, a Yale graduate and world No. 58, defeated world No. 45 Enora Villard in her tournament debut. Villard was on the brink of a comeback taking the second game 12-10 in the second game, but Beecroft was able to regain control of the momentum and close out the match 11-3, 10-12, 11-5 in thirty-one minutes.
“I won the first and felt great and I had a lead in the second, but then just tensed up and she started getting a few points back and getting into the match,” Beecroft said. “I was happy to calm down in the third and regain control of the momentum. It felt a little tense and edgy, but it’s good to get the first one out of the way and hopefully I’ll be more relaxed tomorrow.”
The England international’s second round opponent is Egypt’s three seed Farida Mohamed.
“I feel like I have nothing to lose and she’s a great player, very attacking,” Beecroft said. “We played at the Carol Weymuller and lost in three but it was close, looking forward to getting stuck in and seeing what I can do tomorrow.”
El Einen and Beecroft weren’t the only players to pull off upsets as Faraz Khan, Emilia Soini, Marie Stephan all defeated higher ranked opponents to record their first career wins in San Francisco.
The second day of play will see the debut of the all glass show court in the tournament’s new venue—Pier 70’s Building 12—with eight second round matches set to take place from 12pm noon onwards. Second round matches will also be held at the Olympic Club, University Club and Squash Zone.
For tickets visit oraclenetsuiteopen.com/tickets. Watch glass court play live on SquashTV. Follow live scores for all matches on psaworldtour.com/live.
