[3] Ivan Perez (Esp) 3-2 Rhys Evans (Wal) 11-13, 11-3, 11-4, 11-13, 11-6 (110m)
Home Hero Perez Crowned Valencia Champion After 110-Minute Epic
Spain’s Ivan Perez was crowned Valencia Memorial Chimo Marmaneu 2026 champion after defeating Wales’ surprise package Rhys Evans in an 110-minute epic to claim his second Copper event title.
Coming into the title decider, Evans was yet to concede a single game in the tournament, beating No.8 seed Yassin ElShafei and former World No.16 Abdulla Al-Tamimi on route to the final. Whereas Perez has spent a total of 253 minutes on court during his three matches, an average of 84 minutes per match. Perez’s semi-final saw him come through a bruisingg 115-minute battle with Sam Osborne-Wylde.
During a mammoth 32-minute first game, the momentum ebbed and flowed, with the No.3 seed Perez earning the first game ball at 10-9. Evans pushed on, however and after squandering his first game ball at 11-10, made no mistake two points later to win the opener 13-11. Perez, seemingly frustrated with losing the first game, stormed back to win the next two games 11-3, 11-4 to take a 2-1 lead, one game away from the title.
Perez looked certain to win the fourth game as he raced out to a 5-1 lead. Evans showed his fighting spirit by working his way back into the game and keeping his title hopes alive. In a closely contested business end, Perez moved to 10-9, earning his first championship ball. Evans once again fought back and after a nail-biting tiebreak, the Welshman claimed the game 13-11 to force a decider.
Despite coming so close to securing the trophy in game four, Perez recovered well to lead throughout the entire deciding game. He continued to push Evans into all four corners at pace and continue to wear down the unseeded Welshman. The home hero earned four championship points at 10-6 and converted at the first time of asking to claim his second Copper event title.
Semis : Perez downs Osborne-Wylde in Marathon
Home favourite Ivan Perez reached the final with an 80-minute four game win over second seed Sam Osborne-Wylde, while Wales’ unseeded Rhys Evans reached his biggest final to date as he despatches sixth seed Abdulla Al-Tamimi in straight games.
PSA Reports:
Wales’ Rhys Evans and Spain’s Ivan Perez will contest the PSA Valencia final after the pair came through contrasting semi-finals on day four of the Copper Level event at the Olympia Hotel.
Perez was the first to book his spot in the final, coming through a brutal 115-minute clash with English No.2 seed Sam Osborne-Wylde. In a match full of quality squash and movement, Perez delighted the home crowd by taking a 2-0 lead, winning both the opening two games in tiebreaks, 12-10 and 13-11. The higher-seeded Englishman was confident that the work put into Perez in the opening games would have hurt the Spaniard and Osborne-Wylde reaped the rewards in the next two games, winning 11-4, 11-7 to force a fifth and final game.
There wasn’t much between the two in the early stages of the deciding game, but it was Perez who managed to establish a two-point lead at 7-5 and never looked back. He remained ahead on the scoreboard from there and, after eventually reaching 10-7, produced an accurate backhand drop to seal the win and book his spot in a second Copper event final of his career.
His opponent in the final will be high-flying Welshman Rhys Evans, after the World No.94 downed former World No.16 Abdulla Al-Tamimi in straight games, maintaining his perfect 3-0 record in the tournament so far. Al-Tamimi came through a five-set clash with No.4 seed Balazs Farkas in the quarter-finals and showed the strain of that in the early stages of the semi-final with Evans. The Welshman took the opening game 11-6, looking sharp and sprightly with the Qatar No.1 quite the opposite.
A better showing came from Al-Tamimi in game two, but the relentless pace and energy coming from Evans was too much for the No.6 seed to deal with. Alongside the movement, Evans also showed his quality on the ball also as he kept the tactics simple but excecuted perfectly. His lengths were accurate, his drops were left short and his volleying was constant. More of the same came in game three with the writing on the wall for Al-Tamimi as Evans moved to 10-6. The 9/16 seed converted at the second time of asking to move into the biggest final of his career so far.
Quarters : Perez keeps home hopes alive as Evans advances
Quarter-Finals day in Valencia saw third seed Ivan Perez keep home hopes alive as he beat Muhd Asim Khan in an 80-minute four-game battle. He’ll face second seed Sam Osborne-Wylde for a place in the final after the Englishman beat seventh seed Mohamed Nasser, also in four games.
In the bottom half of the draw Qatar’s Abdullah Al-Tamimi continued his comeback with a four-game win over fourth seed Balazs Farkas, while Wales’ unseeded Rhys Evans eased past giantkiller Marek Panacek in straight games.
Round Two : Panacek Downs Top Seed Rooney On Dramatic Day Two in Valencia
On a dramatic day two at the PSA Valencia 2026 Memorial Chimo Marmaneu, Czech Republic’s Marek Panacek overturned a 100 ranking place deficit to down top seed Patrick Rooney to move into the quarter-finals of the Copper level event.
After three competitive games, Panacek led World No.41 Rooney 2-1, with the 23-year-old capitalising on errors from the Englishman and using his movement to put pressure on Rooney. The fourth game saw little resistance from Rooney as Panacek ran through to win 11-1 and book his spot in the quarter-finals. Panacek will now face Wales’ Rhys Evans after he needed just 25-minutes to defeat No.8 seed Yassin Elshafei, surrendering just 11 points across all three games.
No.2 seed Sam Osborne-Wylde narrowly avoided an early exit after he was pushed all the way to five games by wildcard Sergio Garcia Pollan. After taking the third game to lead 2-1, Osborne-Wylde found himself on the back foot against the determined Spaniard, who then took the fourth game 11-8 to force a decider. Osborne-Wylde steadied the ship in the final game and resumed dominance to close the match out 3-2.
He’ll now be up against Mohamed Nasser, who also came through a five-set clash with England’s Yusuf Sheikh. In a topsy-turvy match, both players were desperate to control the middle, meaning for consistent traffic issues and discussions with the referee. Nasser held his composure better of the two and once the match reached the fifth game, he converted at the third attempt to win 13-11 after nearly 80 minutes of play.
Featuring for the first time since the Qatar Classic last September, Abdulla Al-Tamimi made a winning return as he beat dangerous Egyptian Omar Said in four games. The talented Qatari ruptured his Achilles in his home tournament at the start of last season but made his comeback yesterday in Valencia, coming through in four games. He’s now set to take on No.4 seed Balazs Farkas, after he made light work of Germany’s Yannick Omlor.
The remaining quarter-final will be played out between No.3 seed and Spanish No.3 Ivan Perez and Pakistan’s Muhammad Asim Khan. Perez needed nearly an hour to defeat Marwan Tamer 3-1, whilst Khan was in complete control against No.5 seed Simon Herbert, winning 11-3, 11-2, 11-7 to upset the seedings and advance to the last eight.
Round One : Wildcard Garcia stages dramatic comeback to open the show
Wildcard Sergio Garcia Pollan scored the win of the day as he produced an incredible comeback to beat France’s Brice Nicolas 3-2 in the opening match of the tournament.
Nicolas was too strong for Pollan in the opening two games, winning 11-7, 11-5 to sit comfortably in the driver’s seat. The Spaniard fought back and flipped the match on its head by taking games three and four both 11-5 to set up a decider. Pollan started the better of the two in the final game, leading 5-2. But five of the next seven points went in favour of the Frenchman, drawing the score level at 7-7. Pollan used his experience from there and ran through to take the game 11-8 and the match in 71 minutes.
Pollan’s victory was one of two five-setters on day one, as an all-English battle between Yusuf Sheikh and Will Salter went the distance, with Sheikh coming through in the fifth game, having led twice in the contest.
The final upset of the day came from Czech’s Marek Panacek as he downed Australian No.1 Joseph White in four games. After losing the opening game 11-2, Panacek recovered strongly to steamroll the next three games, 11-7, 11-5, 11-2 to book his place in round two, where his opponent will be top seed Patrick Rooney.
Elsewhere, there were confident wins for Egyptian duo Marwan Tamer and Omar Said as they defeated Aqeel Rehman and Hamza Khan. European duo Rhys Evans and Yannick Omlor both won in under half an hour as they beat the other two wildcards in the event, Adrian Revert Escutia and Ernesto Revert and Pakistan’s Muhammad Asim Khan recorded a 3-1 victory over Shady El Sherbiny.
PSA Preview
The PSA Valencia 2026 – Memorial Chimo Marmaneu gets underway in less than 24 hours time, with English duo Patrick Rooney and Sam Osborne-Wylde named as the top two seeds for the men’s-only Copper-level event.
As just the second World Event of the 2026/27 PSA Squash Tour season, PSA Valencia 2026 – which is being held as a Copper-level event for the first time in its history – will be the first outing for the majority of the field since the summer break.
World No.41 Rooney takes the top seed billing in Valencia this week, with the Englishman kickstarting his quest for a sixth PSA Tour title against one of Joseph White and Marek Panacek.
The 29-year-old can be found in the same quarter of the draw as No.8 seed Yassin Elshafei, and in the same half of the draw as No.4 seed Balazs Farkas and the returning No.6 seed Abdulla Al-Tamimi.
Flamboyant Qatari No.1 Al-Tamimi ruptured his Achilles tendon in the quarter-finals of his home event – the Qatar Classic – last season, and hasn’t been seen on tour since then. The 31-year-old will make his long-awaited return against one of Omar Said or Hamza Khan after receiving a first-round bye.
In the other half of the draw, No.2 seed Osborne-Wylde is joined by Spanish No.3 seed Ivan Perez, who will lead home hopes at the Copper-level event.
World No.51 Perez, who came from an unseeded position to win his first World Events title at last year’s Andorra Open, will hope that a strong run this week can see him climb back into the world’s top 50 and into a career-best ranking ahead of what promises to be an extremely busy 2026/27 PSA Squash Tour season.
If the event were to go to seeding, the Spaniard would face World No.50 Osborne-Wylde in the semi-finals, but other names such as No.5 seed Simon Herbert and No.7 seed Mohamed Nasser will be hoping to cause some seeding upsets along the way.
Away from Perez, home interest comes in the form of tournament Wildcards Sergio Garcia Pollan and Ernesto Revert, who will face off against Brice Nicolas and Yannick Omlor in the first round, respectively.
