Day ONE : Round ONE

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The 2025 edition of the Monte Carlo Classic got underway this evening, with a truly international field contesting eight Round One matches on two courts. 

There were mixed results for the home players, with Kara Lincou and Enora Villard advancing to Round Two, but no joy for Elise Romba as eight players won through to meetings with the top eight seeds tomorrow.

The longest match of the day saw England’s Asia Harris prevail in a mammoth 74 minutes while Germany’s Katerina Tycova and Ireland’s Breanne Flynn joined Lincou in ousting 9/16 seeds.

The Monte Carlo Classic 2025 got underway yesterday, with England’s Asia Harris and France’s Kara Lincou scoring two of the standout wins on day one of the Copper-level event at the Monaco Squash Club.

World No.89 Harris started her campaign off with a thrilling 74-minute win against Malaysia’s Yasshmita Jadishkumar, taking the match 12-10 in a dramatic fifth game.

In a match in which the biggest margin of victory was an 11-9 scoreline, Jadishkumar battled back admirably from 2-0 down to force a decider, notably saving three match balls in a 16-14 fourth game win.

It was 20-year-old Harris, though, who hung tough to claim an 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 14-16, 12-10 and set up a second-round tie with No.7 seed Millie Tomlinson.

After the match, Harris said: “When you give her time on the ball, she is very skilful with the racquet, and when I did go too passive, I was giving her too much time on the ball, which meant she could play so many different shots, and she was absolutely amazing out there.

“Mentally, this is my fifth tournament back, I still need a bit of match fitness, and I am probably in a different headspace than what I was in my first tournament.

“So trying to keep those clocks ticking, going into tomorrow, it will be one of my main focuses, getting the body back in a decent shape again, but mentally trying to stay in there.”

Elsewhere, tournament Wildcard Kara Lincou – niece of former World No.1 Thierry Lincou – scored a big ranking upset as she overcame Singapore’s Wai Yhann Au Yeong by an 11-9, 11-9, 13-11 scoreline.

Making her World Events debut on the PSA Squash Tour, Trinity College Senior Lincou made the most of her opportunity to record one of the biggest wins of her career to date. The 22-year-old will face fellow Frenchwoman Laurean Baltayan in the second round.

Meanwhile, World No.87 Australia’s Madison Lyon came through the other five-game match of the day, defeating Tessa ter Sluis by a 7-11, 13-11, 11-3, 8-11, 11-3 scoreline.

“It was a tough match against Tessa, it went to five.” Lyon said after the match. “I have never played her in a proper match, and it was very close.

“Mentally, it was a matter of staying focused and being consistent with my game plan. I feel I have been dropping in and out of that recently, so it’s good to have a match where I can work as well as execute, I guess.”

The other winners on the opening day of action were France’s Enora Villard, German duo Katerina Tycova and Saskia Beinhard, New Zealand’s Kaitlyn Watts and Ireland’s Breanne Flynn.

Check out the match reports and reaction below …

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