The inaugural German Open began with an action-packed afternoon session as tournament wildcard Marek Panacek shocked World No.56 Faraz Khan on the glass court at the Sportwerk centre in Hamburg, Germany.
On his World Tour debut, Czech Republic’s Panacek upset USA’s Khan in one of the biggest rankings upsets ever seen on the PSA Tour. The 21-year-old played an attractive brand of squash, frequently deceiving his opponent in the front corner with clever holds and disguised drops.
Khan was never far behind the former World No.114, but Panacek consistently lead the scoring throughout all three games, and the match ended on a mistake from Khan as Panacek collapsed to the floor in celebration of claiming his first win on the World Tour over a player 762 ranks above him.
Speaking after the match, Panacek said, “It feels so special to me. I’m grateful to the promoters that I got the wildcard. I’m very happy with my performance and I’m grateful to anyone who played a big role in it. “I was physically done over the last year. I got chronic fatigue with Lyme disease as well and I wasn’t able to do anything else, just walking outside and sleeping all day. Mentally it broke me for many months.
“I respect Faraz so much. I met him for the first time today. I didn’t know him very well. I just went on court to enjoy and do my best as I always do. I’m super happy. My match with Brownell will be on the side courts so different conditions. As with Faraz I’ve never met Timothy so hopefully tomorrow I’ll be ready for it.”
Malaysia’s Ainaa Amani defeated Switzerland’s Nadia Pfister in an exciting start to the inaugural German Open. Pfister looked out-of-sorts in the opening phase of the match, as the Malaysia’s Ainaa Amani amounted seven unanswered points and threatened to begin the tournament with a bagel.
Pfister found her footing nearing the end of the first game, but the damage was already done as the Malaysian eased her way to 11-5. In a more evenly-contested second game, the pair were inseparable to 7-7 as Pfister began to find her lengths and kept up with the tempo the Malaysian was setting, but it was again Amani who took the lead, with the Swiss player unable to find consistency for a whole game.
A quick start to the third game saw Amani take a strong lead, and despite a fightback from Pfister that saw the game go to a tie-break, the Malaysian was too much as she pushed on to a 3-0 victory.
In the first men’s match of the tournament, Israel’s Daniel Poleshchuk dispatched Czech Republic’s Martin Svec to progress to a second round match against No.4 seed Eain Yow Ng.
Poleshchuk dominated the first and second games despite some strong signs from Svec, but the Israeli was too consistent in the end as he won the match in three games, ending the match with an outrageous backhand cross-court roller.
The first German action came from tournament wildcard Maya Weishar as she took on Spain’s Marta Rodriguez. Despite a good showing from the German, the Spaniard maintained an advantage throughout the three games and came away with the win to set up a second round clash with No.2 seed Tinne Gilis.
Results: German Open 2024 – Presented by Sportwerk Women’s RD1
Ainaa Amani (MAS) bt Nadia Pfister (SUI) 3-0: 11-5, 11-8, 13-11 (26m)
Marta Dominguez (ESP) bt [WC] Maya Weishar (GER) 3-0: 11-6, 11-7, 11-8 (26m)
Results: German Open 2024 – Presented by Sportwerk Men’s RD1
Daniel Poleshchuk (ISR) bt Martin Svec (CZE) 3-0: 11-4, 11-7, 11-8 (27m)
[WC] Marek Panacek (CZE) bt Faraz Khan (USA) 3-0: 11-7, 11-9, 11-8 (31m)
