“Upset of the century!”
“A win for the history books.”
And the ultimate celebration of an unexpected moment, the use of a ‘mind blown’ emoji, were all enlisted by the Professional Squash Association’s social media team to describe an epic moment at the Egyptian Open on Sunday (14 September).
Local wildcard entrant, Adam Hawal, world ranked No. 252 had won his second-round squash match against World No. 3, Paul Coll, topping the New Zealander 3-1 (3-11, 11-9, 13-11, 12-10).
The five-time world medallist was one of the favourites for the Diamond-level event on the PSA Squash Tour, one of the tournaments in which points are collated toward the standings in which the top eight players qualify for the season-ending PSA Squash Tour Finals in June 2026.
Yet there was even more to the achievement than teenager Hawal realised.
“Now you get to play in front of the pyramids,” a journalist told him in the mixed zone afterwards.
“Really? I didn’t know that. That’s great,” the Cairo native smiled. “Like I told you yesterday, I was a little kid watching this (competition) in the pyramids so it’s a privilege to play tomorrow at the… ancient pyramids. It’s in the DNA, so I’m going to be a pharaoh tomorrow.“
Hawal will play Fares Dessouky in a home nation showdown and will be hoping to best his more experienced compatriot who achieved a career high of World No. 7 in April 2021.
Now ranked 15th, veteran Dessouky, who turns 31 at the end of this month, will be hoping to beat the 17-year-old Hawal to make it through to the latter stages of the tournament, which culminates with the men’s final on Friday.
Having also beaten English World No.32 Curtis Malik 3-1 in the first round in his first ever major PSA event, Hawal will be looking for a hat-trick of surprise results.
Yet there are even more storylines from the first Diamond-level event in the 2025-26 series, in the sport that makes its Olympic debut at LA28.