5:20 am
16 Feb 2025

Sobhy & Marche March Into ToC R2

24 Jan 2025

France's Gregoire Marche and USA's Amanda Sobhy claimed highlight wins on day one of the 2025 JP Morgan Tournament of Champions in New York, edging past world No.8 Karim Gawad and world No.10 Sivasangari Subramaniam in thrilling five-game battles at the city's iconic Grand Central Terminal.

Frenchman Marche ended a 13-year wait for a win over former World Champion Gawad, treating the crowd to a dramatic 8-11, 11-4, 15-13, 5-11, 11-8 victory in the very first match of the PSA Squash Tour Platinum event.

The world No.29 had only beaten Gawad once in their previous nine encounters, all the way back in 2012, but delivered an aggressive and accurate performance to stun the No.6 seed and book his spot in the second round.

"It's a huge win for me," Marche 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. I'm just happy with the way I fought physically in the fifth game.

"I know Karim, he doesn't lose 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 really happy to be through."

Meanwhile, USA No.2 Sobhy kickstarted her Tournament of Champions campaign in thrilling style, prevailing 11-4, 4-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-9 against Malaysian No.1 Sivasangari.

In a match that saw multiple swings in momentum, it was world No.17 Sobhy who delivered two superbly executed points from 9-9 in the fifth game to seal victory in front of her home crowd.

Elsewhere on day one, world No.9s Nele Gilis-Coll and Mohamed ElShorbagy survived scares as they both battled from behind to claim five-game wins over Malaysia's Rachel Arnold and Germany's Raphael Kandra.