Opening Day $360K Paris Report by Simon Dent August 27, 2023 - World
No.41 Katie Malliff scored the biggest upset on the opening day of the
Paris Squash 2023 after beating French No.1 Melissa Alves 3-1 at the
Parvis du Palais de Tokyo.
The Englishwoman, who defeated World No.21
Alves at the Squash on Fire Open earlier this year in the pair’s
first-ever meeting, won the first two games in the tiebreak 13-11 and
12-10.
With her home crowd behind her, Alves
pulled one game back when she took the third 11-9 and, after a lengthy
injury break in the fourth after Malliff accidentally caught Alves in
the face with her swing, Malliff came out victorious to defeat Alves
11-7.
“It was a tough match. I knew it was going
to be a hard one as Melissa [Alves] is very physical and you usually
have long rallies. I tried to stick in there, be patient and wait for
my opportunities to attack,” Malliff said.
“I usually go in with a lot of belief that
you can beat anyone you’re on court with. I just try to focus on my
game and keep it as simple as possible.”
In the men’s draw, Fance’s Auguste Dussourd held off Henry Leung to win 3-2 and progress to the second round.
Round Two of the Paris Squash 2023 takes
place tomorrow (Monday 28 August) at 12:00 (GMT+2). Action from Paris
will be streamed live on SQUASHTV.
