Home Hero Brownell Stars In Silicon Valley Opener

American No.1 Timothy Brownell delivered an entertaining five-game victory on the opening day of action at the Silicon Valley Open 2024 presented by Oracle NetSuite, as he fought back from 2/1 down to defeat Patrick Rooney at the PSA Squash Tour Gold event in Redwood City, California.

Playing in his first home event of the season, Brownell flew out of the blocks, hitting his marks exceptionally as he raced through an 11-1 first game.

However, Rooney worked way back into the match impressively, dominating the 'T' and pushing Brownell deeper into the back two corners. The Englishman took the second and third games by 12-10 and 11-4 scorelines to move within a game of the second round, but Brownell kept his composure to tilt the momentum of the match back in his favour again.

The world No.30 continued to play his free-flowing attacking style of squash, which included one particularly eye-catching 'Philly boast', and forced a deciding game to the joy of the home fans. The two-time US Nationals champion took an early lead in the fifth and didn't look back from there, progressing through to face Welsh No.5 seed Joel Makin in the next round.

After the match, he said: "I think the match could have gone either way, there were some crazy swings [in momentum]. But I think that is going to happen when you have both players who are relying more on the rackets than the legs.

"He's super talented, he's been as high as the top 20, so in the middle of the match it was all about not giving up, and then seeing what happens.

"When I'm not playing freely, I become very ordinary. When I let my hand go, that's when I play my best."

Elsewhere on day one of action, England's Curtis Malik overcame Egypt's former world No.3 Omar Mosaad in a gruelling five-game encounter. The pair delivered a thriller at last season's Black Ball Open - a match which Malik clinched 13-11 in the fifth - and the Englishman came up clutch in the pressure moments once again to save a match ball and take the fifth game tie-break by the same scoreline.

Meanwhile, under 24 hours after competing in the Open Squash Classic final with Farida Mohamed in New York, Hong Kong's Ka Yi Lee was back out on court, continuing her rich vein of form by coming from a game behind to defeat Egypt's Menna Hamed.