El Hammamy Fightback Sees Third Seed Through To Paris R3

World No.3 Hania El Hammamy was forced to battle back from two games down to defeat world No.10 Tinne Gilis for a place in the third round of Paris Squash 2023, the PSA World Tour Platinum event at the Parvis du Palais de Tokyo.

Gilis, the Belgian No.2 who climbed into the top ten of the PSA World Rankings for the first time this month, clinched the first two games 11-5 and 11-9 following two clinical displays.

An unforced error from Gilis at game ball for El Hammamy in the third opened the door for the Egyptian to get back into the contest as she halved the deficit, before restoring parity in the fourth with an 11-5 scoreline.

The 22-year-old from Cairo dominated the middle of the court in the decider and went on to close out the match to progress to the last 16 round.

"It was a very tough match today against Tinne," said El Hammamy later. "She played absolutely brilliant and threw everything at me, but I'm so proud of the way I came back into the game after being 2/0 down. I tried to dig in and I wasn't finding my lines and I wasn't firing my shots. I was working towards that after being 2/0 down."

Meanwhile in the men's draw, French No.1 Victor Crouin kicked off his tournament campaign with a 3/0 victory over Yahya Elnawasany.