[29] Juan Vargas (Col) 3-2 Salman Khalil (Egy) 12-10, 3-11, 11-3, 5-11, 11-5 (61m)
Juan : “I felt pretty good coming in, obviously it’s the Worlds, so I think a lot of the nerves increase and the tension increases and you want a bit more than in your usual tournament.
“I think that can backfire a little bit into more nerves and you can be maybe a bit more tense on court, but I’m just really happy to get through.
“Salman is very talented. I saw a little bit of his matches in Calgary and I knew he was a very dangerous player and very hungry obviously to win here on his home turf, so I tried to be very clinical. I think at times I didn’t manage to execute that and he was just very sharp.
The game he won, he hit a lot of winners and my quality wasn’t great, but I’m just happy to bring out a bit more experience in the end. I’m really grateful I had Diego’s dad in my corner, that was very useful and yeah, we’re going to try and focus on tomorrow and the second round in two days.”
Juan Vargas looks ahead to his RD2 match up here in Cairo at the PSA World Championships 👀 pic.twitter.com/pv8uRsA0hg
— PSA Squash Tour (@PSASquashTour) May 8, 2026
