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The Grasshopper Cup makes its long awaited return, with the first round of the tournament getting underway today at Squash Arena Uster.
The tournament had a three-year COVID-enforced break, but the Swiss event is back with 16 matches across two courts.
Switzerland No.1 Nicolas Mueller is in opening round action, coming up against France’s Sebastien Bonmalais this evening.
There are two wildcards who begin their tournament in the first round on home court, with World No.38 Dimitri Steinmann facing World No.19 Raphael Kandra from Germany.
The wildcard in the women’s draw, Nadia Pfister goes up against Tinne Gilis in what will be their fourth meeting on the PSA World Tour.
You can watch the action from the glass court live on SQUASHTV from 15:00 (GMT+2) and you can also keep right up to date with the scores from Switzerland here.
Finally, a win in the second round! It’s obviously very sad to see Ali not at his best today, I think he’s still struggling with his knee. Even on one and a half legs he’s still a pretty good player, he’s not World No.1 for nothing,” Mueller said. “I played Ramy when he was also on one leg here, and I didn’t want to end up losing this one, so I made sure I was able to stay on top and win it. Every time I hit a cross court I thought that he wouldn’t get it. I feel very sorry for him, but on the other hand I’m very happy to be playing here on Friday.
“Marwan’s been playing well recently. He beat me last time, but the two times before I won. We’re in for a treat on Friday night, so I need everyone to come back and support us. Dimitri also needs the crowd tomorrow so we can have two Swiss players in the quarters, that’s the main goal.”
Peru’s Diego Elias and Welshman Joel Makin also made it through from the men’s draw, winning their matches against Frenchman Baptiste Masotti and Malaysian #1 Eain Yow Ng, both in three games.
In the women’s matches USA’s Olivia Fiechter came from a game down to overcome Belgium’s Tinne Gilis, setting up a quarter-final against top seed Nour El Sherbini whom ended home interest in the women’s draw with a win over Cindy Merlo.
The other women’s quarter final will see the Egyptian duo Nour El Tayeb and Rowan Elaraby meet after defeating Melissa Alves and Emily Whitlock.
