LES PHOTOS
Second Tour
Gregoire Marche 3-0 Baptiste Masotti 11-8, 11-8, 11-5 (39m)
[4] Paul Coll (NZL) 3-0 Victor Crouin 11-8, 11-8, 12-10 (62m)
L’analyse de Victor Crouin
DEUX GROSSES BATAILLES SUR LE COURTDEUX BATAILLES PHYSIQUES 💪
Retour à New York pour ce tournoi mythique dans l’enceinte de Grand Central Terminal, théâtre de mon meilleur résultat sur le World Tour l’année dernière.
Premier tour compliqué face à Miguel Rodriguez où j’ai dû sauver une balle de match avant de m’imposer au cinquième jeu. Une belle victoire au mental malgré un niveau de jeu irrégulier.
Le tour suivant contre Paul Coll n’a malheureusement pas tourné en ma faveur. Malgré la défaite 3-0, chaque jeu était disputé jusqu’au bout, avec notamment une balle de jeu à 10-9 dans le troisième. Paul a été plus solide et efficace dans les moments clés.
Mon niveau de jeu cette semaine était en dents de scie avec trop de fautes directes. Cependant, je suis satisfait de mon attitude et de ma capacité à trouver des solutions. Le travail hivernal porte ses fruits et il faut continuer à persévérer pour décrocher ces grandes victoires que je cherche.
Merci à mes amis présents pour leur soutien, à Marwan Tarek pour le coaching, à Open Squash pour leur accueil, et à tous les français qui nous ont suivis sur Sport en France.
Prochaine étape : le Championnat de France Élite à Chartres avant de revenir en Amérique du Nord pour trois semaines de compétition. L’aventure continue et je suis prêt à relever les prochains défis !
Premier quart d’un Platinum pour Greg Marche depuis 2021!
Gregoire Marche reached a Platinum level quarter-final for the first time since 2021, beating compatriot Baptiste Masotti 3-0 in the opening match on day 3.
The two players were teammates at the recent WSF World Team Championships in December, but had to put their friendship to one side with a place in the quarter-finals at stake here.
Neither player had reached the last eight of a Platinum event for a number of years, with Marche last doing so in 2021 and Masotti in 2019.
Marche had the advantage of having played his round-one match on this court – upsetting Karim Abdel Gawad – while Masotti had beaten another Frenchman in Sebastien Bonmalais on the traditional courts of the New York Athletic Club. That perhaps played a factor in the opening exchanges here as Marche eased into an 8-2 lead thanks to a solid and consistent start, helped by a series of errors from his opponent’s racket.
Masotti grew into the game and threatened an impressive comeback by closing the game back to 9-8, but a pair of tins ultimately dented his charge to hand Marche a one-game lead.
There was little to split the players throughout most of game two, but once again it was Marche who headed off court victorious, his 11-8 success highlighted by a brilliant backhand winner to end a breathtaking rally at 8-8. With a two-game lead and the finishing line in sight, there was no sense of panic or over-excitement from the 34-year-old Marche, as he continued to play outstandingly accurate squash, with the errors still coming almost exclusively from the Masotti racket.
A 7-1 run to open game four all-but took the contest away from Masotti, and while he continued to battle, closing the gap back to 7-4, March held form, slamming a forehand winner into the nick at 9-4, before closing the match out just moments later.
“I know Baptise very well, we are very good friends and we train together, so we know each other’s games so well,” he said after victory.
“But I knew today I was feeling much better than two or three months ago so I knew I had my chance. Of course, beating Gawad in the first round was a big boost of confidence so I had to take this advantage.
“I pushed hard in the end of the second and I think this was the key. If I don’t take the second, maybe it goes to a long battle, but I’m really happy with the way I kept my focus at a crucial time.”
Premier Tour
Grégoire Marche3-2 [6] Karim Gawad (EGY) 8-11, 11-4, 15-13, 5-11, 11-8 (76m)
Baptiste Masotti 3-1 Sébastien Bonmalais 5-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-3 (58m)
Victor Crouin 3-2 Miguel Rodriguez (COL) 11-8, 7-11, 5-11, 12-10, 11-2 (71m)
[4] Paul Coll (NZL) 3-1 Auguste Dussourd 11-3, 10-12, 11-6, 11-3 (60m)
Jasmine Hutton (ENG) 3-0 Melissa Alves 11-7, 11-7, 11-9 (36m)
𝗟’𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗟𝗢𝗜𝗧 𝗣𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗚𝗥𝗘𝗚𝗢𝗜𝗥𝗘 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗛𝗘 par Jérôme Elhaïk
👉 Le partenariat entre le PSA Squash Tour, la FFSquash – Fédération Française de Squash et Sport en France ne pouvait pas mieux commencer … Au premier tour du Tournament of Champions, Gregoire Marche s’est offert une performance XXL en battant l’Egyptien Karim Abdel Gawad, ancien champion du monde, n°1 mondial et vainqueur du tournoi (8-11, 11-4, 15-13, 5-11, 11-8 en 76 minutes) !
👉 À 34 ans, c’est la première fois que le français bat un joueur du top 8 mondial dans un tournoi Platinum. Cerise sur le gâteau, on sait déjà qu’il y aura un tricolore en quart de finale. En effet, Marche affrontera le vainqueur du duel Sébastien Bonmalais – Baptiste Masotti en 1/8ème.
LA PSA:
The J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions 2025 kicked off in style as Gregoire Marche recorded a stunning and dramatic 3-2 win over Karim Abdel Gawad – his first for 13 years.
Gawad and Marche were opening the 2025 tournament on the all-glass court at the spectacular Grand Central Terminal, with a healthy crowd watching on, as well as a regular flow of passers-by stopping for a glimpse of the action behind the front wall.
Marche had only beaten Gawad once in their previous nine encounters, all the way back in 2012, and 10 minutes into this one, the Egyptian was well-placed to make that nine wins from 10, taking the opening game 11-8.
But Marche turned things around in dramatic fashion in game two, dominating the rallies on his way to an 11-4 success in just seven minutes.
The Frenchman continued to be the aggressor in game three but Gawad battled hard, forcing a tiebreak and saving multiple game balls, before ultimately going down 15-13 when Marche found the nick on an audacious backhand winner, ending a rally that had also featured a ‘tweener.
Consistency had been an issue for Gawad through the first three games but he began to find some rhythm in the fourth, despite being far from his best, never letting March settle on his way to an 11-5 win, sending the match into a decider.
A spectacular dive from Marche drew gasps from both the ticketed crowd and the public watching on, while a conduct stroke against him for dissent lifted the tension up even further, as the player went toe-to-toe, deep into the game. But the Frenchman kept his cool, whipping a backhand cross-court that Gawad could not return on match ball at 10-8.
“It’s a huge win for me,” he said after victory.
“I had a tough week last week. I was sick and I didn’t know how I was going to be, physically, and I’m just happy with the way I fought physically to the fifth game.
“I know Karim, he’s not losing a lot of fifth games, so I just told myself ‘ok at least one more time in my life, I want to show him that I can beat him in the fifth, so it’s a super good performance for me today and I’m super happy to be through.
“This is my favourite place [on Tour] for sure. The court is just amazing, there’s a lot of people coming to watch squash. It’s a great promotion for the sport and you just want to give more than 100% when you play on it so it’s a privilege to be able to play here.”