Men’s $90k PSA Silver, 25-30 Oct, Toronto, Canada
The Smart Centres Canada Cup continues the tradition of a men’s tournament at Clubs across Canada, this year coming together with the Canadian Women’s Open with later stage matches played on the Glass Court at Brookfield Place.
Round One :
Adam Hawal and Muhammad Ashab Irfan gatecrashed the opening day, notching impressive victories over Nicolas Mueller and Juan Vargas at the Silver-level event in Toronto.
World #61 Hawal recovered from a game down to dispatch World #33 Mueller 3-1, while World #59 Irfan held off World No.28 Vargas by the same scoreline to secure their places in the next round.
After losing the first game 12-10, Hawal saw five game balls saved by Mueller in the second before the Egyptian teenager managed to covert at the sixth attempt to level the match. After two closely-fought encounters, Hawal pulled clear in the third and fourth games with 11-5, 11-3 victories.
Meanwhile Irfan charged into a 2-0 lead against Vargas before the Colombian halved the deficit with an 11-6 triumph in the third game. After trailing 7-2 in the fourth, Vargas recovered to level the score at 8-8 and saved a match ball to force a tiebreak. However Irfan converted at the second time of asking to seal the win.
Bernat Jaume held off an excellent comeback from men’s wildcard Karim Aguib Michael, with the Canadian fighting back from 2-0 down to force a fifth game against the Spaniard. However it was Jaume who came out on top in the decider, edging the tiebreak 12-10 to advance to round two.
