Melissa – The Queen of Copper crowned in Monte-Carlo

[1] Melissa Alves (FRA) 3-0 [2] Zeina Mickawy (EGY)  11-5, 11-3, 11-9 (30m)

Zeina played some serious long matches this week, nearly losing in her round one, saving 7 match balls from 10/3 down… Then last night, a very tense, intense, fair match against Torrie, that she clinched 14/12 in the 5th on her 5th match ball… It’s not just physical work, it’s also a mental push that takes a lot out of you.

In my humble opinion, the Egyptian tonight needed the first game, desperatly. But Melissa never let her have a sniff at it. 5/3, 8/3, 11/5 in 8m. Melissa seemed very calm, composed and “droit dans ses bottes”, very comfortable in control.

She made things even more difficult for Zeina in the second, 7m game, 11/3.

Having nothing to lose, back to the wall, Zeina played her best squash. I could see how exhausted she was, but she still accepted the rallies, and it’s only on the last return of serve that she went for too much, I think the legs had given up…

Fair match, fair girls, sportmanship at its best. Credit to our sport you were, ladies. The boys could take note. The boys SHOULD take note.

Photo credit: @fersen_sherkann

Zeina

Dead.

Honestly, I’m proud of myself for pushing through this week, and reach the final. I could have left from my first round!

I’m 100% not happy with my performance today. I couldn’t push, I couldn’t manage, I couldn’t find a plan B.
I know I was very tired, but you always have to find a way no matter what. And I couldn’t. And that’s why I’m a bit disappointed.

But looking at the positive side, I reached the final, I played long matches, I fought. Hopefully next time I can find a way…

Melissa

This tournament is engraved in the players’ memories.

The Monte-Carlo tournament has been around forever… I’ve always known about it; I don’t even remember since when, but it’s been quite a while!

It was actually the first PSA event I ever played — because France isn’t far, and the organisers were always kind enough to give us wildcards. So that was really cool!

It’s a historic tournament, truly a historic one.

The fact that I chose to come here instead of going to China says a lot about how important it is to me — the China Open is a Gold event, after all. But this one matters. The atmosphere, the crowd, the people who welcome us… Everything about it feels special. And of course, winning a title always feels amazing!

The fact that I didn’t drop a single game and won the tournament, spending just two hours on court, gives me a big boost of confidence. Winning every match 3–0 — there’s really nothing but positives to take from that. It’s confidence in knowing I can win matches with a margin, even if, at the end, it got a little tense — you feel the finish line coming, you just want to close it out, and that’s when you start to tremble a bit. But I was confident enough to finish it in that game.

I’ve worked really hard at the start of this season — not just to win, but to win like this.
Now I just hope my coach [Yann Menegaux] will finally tell me I played a complete match. Yes? No? Could do better??

Earlier, I was watching the China Open, and even the biggest names in the world were struggling to finish off matches!

Zeina played the right shots at the right time towards the end to unsettle me — to make me a bit nervous! Which was good, otherwise it would’ve been too easy, no suspense at all.

I’m glad I was able to handle that moment. It shows I’ve made progress in that area. I could easily have lost it completely, ended up in a fourth — or even a fifth game.

But no, it finished in three. Maybe a bit short for a final, but honestly, I’m delighted — because now we can go drink champagne and eat the little canapés! My mum came to see me play, of course, but also for that part — I won’t lie to you!

Jokes aside, I’m really, really happy to win here with my mum in the stands. I wanted to show her the best version of myself — and that’s what I did today. I’m happy for myself, but also for French Guiana, as always.

And also because — with my coach — we had never done a good tournament together. Never. And today, we won every match, without dropping a game. Royal. ROYAL!

More seriously, a word for Khalifa, my Egyptian coach. I reached out to him to help me find what I was missing — and he gave it back to me. After my loss to Anahat Singh, I went to talk to him, and he told me, “You need to play with your heart — bring the same personality you have off court, onto the court.” And I said, “You know what? You’re not wrong.”

But most of all, a word for Yann, because we’ve talked a lot.

What I really appreciate about Yann is that he accepts that I go and learn elsewhere. That’s really important in a coach — he doesn’t have that ego. He tells me, “Okay, go see what you need to see, come back with what you’ve learned, and we’ll work on it together.” And it works.

I’m quite isolated in France — there aren’t many players to train with — so I told him, I need a bit from here, a bit from there. I went to Egypt to find that, and then I come home to finalise things. Yann’s great about that — he says, “Go ahead.” And when I come back, we’re together, and that’s what matters most.

As for the rest — the match, well, I played, I won, my mum’s here, and now we’re off to put it all on red at the Casino!

Photo credit: @fersen_sherkann