PSA Gibraltar Open 2025 Day 2 Report

Day 2 at Europa Sports Park welcomed the top seeds into the draw. Top seed, Brice Nicolas (FRA) started the play on court 1 against fellow Frenchman Joshua Phinera. Nicolas convincingly taking the game 3-0. Meanwhile on court 2 a third member of the French contingent Manuel Paquemar was struggling against Will Slater (ENG). With the game at 1-1, Slater took a convincing game 11-2 to take a 2-1 lead, closing out to win the game 3-1 in a tighter fourth game.
In the Women’s division, Amelie Haworth’s (ENG) return to the Rock caused the first upset of the day. The 9th seed knocking out number 2 seed Lea Barbou (FRA). In a super tight first game Haworth came out on top in a 17-15 thriller. Barbou drew the game level but Haworth prevailed taking the final two games to book her place in the third round. Ellie Breach (WAL) progressed in her game more efficiently, beating the Portuguese Mariana Ventura Martins in 3 games.
Other efficient players gaining a place in the third round were Valentin Rapp (GER) and Maceo Levy (FRA) beating David Mainer (LEI) and Ryan Gwidzima (ZIM) respectively in the Men’s draw and Tamara Holzbauerová (CZE) beating Sanika Choudhari (IND) in the Women’s.
It took Chloe Foster (ENG) the full 5 games to overcome Argentinian Pilar Etchechoury. Etchechoury took a two game head start, but Foster persevered, drawing the game level before completing the job to progress to round 3.
In the later games, number one seed Hayley Ward (RSA) progressed comfortably against Sophie Bolland (ENG) in the Women’s tournament. Number 3 seed Olivia Besant (ENG) and Kara Lincou (FRA) also advanced with 3-0 wins over Siana Zhileva (BUL) and Rose Lucas Lucas Marcuzzo (FRA) respectively.
Number 2 seed Owain Taylor (WAL) and Karim Aguib (CAN) both went a game down at the start of their games before re-asserting themselves on their matches to win 3-1 against Jared Carter (ENG) and Joel Arscott (NZL) respectively. Robert Downer (ENG) and Ondrej Vorlicek (CZE) both won in straight games against the Spanish pair of Hugo Lafuente Jaen and Victor Reguera.