By Rod Gilmour

Twelve months after Fares Dessouki stood out as the breakthrough player of the 2014 Allam British Open, along came another Egyptian to showcase his unerring talents in Hull.

With compliments to Dessouki (now established as a world top 20 player), Mazen Hesham has something special about him. A Ramy Ashour Mark 2 perhaps? For he speaks like him, plays shots like him and even needs to be wrapped up in cotton wool like the current world champion.

The 21-year-old from Cairo hasn’t segued into the Ashour category quite yet, noting earlier this year that he was “reckless, crazy and impatient”. And that much was evident at the British Open, although he had travelled to Hull on the back of winning “the best tournament of my life” at the Houston Open in March, beating Steve Coppinger in the final.

In his British Open first round match at the University of Hull’s plaster courts, he was two games up against Hong Kong’s Leo Au before a loss of concentration took the game to five.

His subsequent win, his first after two successive years of trying in qualifying, yielded a glass court encounter with compatriot Omar Mosaad, a player he knows well and trains with in Cairo. Another five-game victory ensued and a quarter-final berth against defending champion Gregory Gaultier.



The Frenchman eventually stymied the young Egyptian 3-0, but his three outings were enough to suggest that the world tour had a new entertainer in its midst.

His mannerisms suggested as much in the three matches that I witnessed.

I saw him slowly dropping his racket and fling his arms to his head at some refereeing decisions. I saw his arms flail like a mother running after her son who had forgotten an item for school. I saw him tilt his head up as if peaking over the top of a crowd to see if the ball had gone up, after playing a deep drop. I saw him, amusingly, briefly take the applause of the crowd as he came back on court mid-match against Gaultier.



“What a refreshing talent,” was one watching referee’s assertion.



To listen to Hesham’s reflections a month after his British Open run is refreshing too, as he hastily rattles off his week in Hull in one answer.

Picking up cramp in his wrist during the fifth game against Au, he thought he had nothing to lose. So he took his chances and, he says, hit six nicks in a row. “It was too lucky and I didn’t believe it myself.”

He began to feel the effects, as well as two years of pain in his neck and shoulders, but still came through from 2-1 down. “I relaxed and could feel he was starting to make mistakes.”

“I then did my best with Greg and I was afraid he might bagel me as he is so good,” he says.

“A lot of things were going through my mind. How could I be more patient? Could I push him more? I just didn’t want to be that easy player for Greg.

“My personality is like this. Not crazy in a bad way, just overexcited sometimes. It’s hard to change this, but I am trying. It’s what makes me a bit different but I hope to have structure to my game soon.”

For all Hesham’s talent – he has a wonderful hold and flick to his shot-making – it is a surprise to learn that his junior career in Egypt garnered little success.

He reveals that he never made a semi-final of a national championship, despite being no.1 for his age group at under-11 and 13. “I never felt lucky in those tournaments,” he admits.

So are the comparisons with Ashour too early, then? “I heard about this,”



laughs Hesham, who first played aged seven. “But there is no comparison for me. The guy is a legend and he wins tournaments as if it was nothing. He can’t be compared with anyone.

“Yes, I want to be world no.1, world champion, British Open champion. I want to be everything. But I have to work really hard for it and that’s starting now.” World squash awaits the outcome.