Ibrahim at the Qatar Classic 2020

Few players announce themselves on the senior circuit as spectacularly as Youssef Ibrahim: four blistering performances at the Qatar Classic which made the squash world sit up and listen. Comfortable wins against Nicolas Mueller and Cezar Salazar preceded one of the most memorable moments of 2020, the rookie Egyptian coming from behind to down Mohamed Elshorbagy in 5. A quarter-final defeat to compatriot Fares Dessouky saw Ibrahim bow out, but not before he’d taken the future CIB winner to 5 games.

Ibrahim’s mercurial, whippy stroke play and high-risk high-reward tactics make him enthralling to watch, and his conscious decision to play left-handed only adds to the intrigue. As the World Tour awaits restart, we take the opportunity to tease out themes from Ibrahim’s four noteworthy performances at November’s Qatar Classic.

Ibrahim’s a prolific volleyer. In each match in Qatar, he outvolleyed his opponent, hitting one in five shots on the full against Mueller and Salazar, while limiting them to a volley every seven shots. Elshorbagy (19.5%) came closest to matching Ibrahim’s volley rate (21.6%), but Dessouky remarkably conceded a volley every three shots to Ibrahim. 

Ibrahim outvolleyed his opponent in each match at the Qatar Classic

Interestingly, the frequency with which Ibrahim was able to volley did not differ in line with whether he won the point. Given the rally-control often afforded by volleying, we might have expected his volley rate to approach one in four shots in points he won, and one in six shots in points he lost, averaging out in the middle at one in five. But his volley rate remained constant regardless of which way the point fell. This may point to the young Egyptian’s proactive approach: not unlike his eventual conqueror Dessouky, whether Ibrahim wins or loses the point is very often in his own hands – get his aggressive play right, he wins; get it wrong, he loses.

Ibrahim’s high volley rate did not lead directly to him winning the point

The benefits and pitfalls of this proactive approach are reflected neatly in Ibrahim’s Winner and Error count in his R3 and QF matches: a 3-2 victory against Elshorbagy and a 3-2 loss to Dessouky. The Winner and Error comparison against Elshorbagy is typical of a high-risk high-reward player: Ibrahim (13) hit more Unforced Errors than Elshorbagy (7), but this was counterbalanced by his high number of Winners (22). Fast forward 24 hours, and the margins went against Ibrahim: his 14 Winners could not make up for his 17 Unforced Errors. This time it was Dessouky, a similarly cavalier strokemaker, whose 20 Winners outstripped his 10 Unforced Errors.

Ibrahim’s high-risk high-reward strategy paid off against Elshorbagy, but the margins went against Ibrahim when playing Dessouky

We rightly marvel at Ibrahim’s pinpoint drops and smashed nicks. But the hard yards are done beforehand, forcing an opponent deep to open up the front court. It is no surprise, then, that Ibrahim should have most success when forcing his opponent to the back before unleashing a trademark kill.

One those points he won, Ibrahim frequently forced his opponent deep, opening up the front court for a deft finish

A good illustration of the importance of length came in the match vs Elshorbagy. After Ibrahim won the opener, Elshorbagy took Games 2 and 3 comfortably. Ibrahim squeaked the fourth, before taking the fifth. The result of the first four Games fell in perfect correlation with how often each player was able to force their opponent to play from deep (measured here simply as behind the service boxes), while avoiding playing from this region themselves.

In Ibrahim and Elshorbagy’s R3 clash, whoever forced their opponent deep more often tended to win the Game

Two types of shot used sparingly by Ibrahim in Qatar were shots played off the back wall and shots with pace taken off. Throughout the tournament, Ibrahim elected to take pace off just once every twenty shots – a rate approximately half as frequent as his opponents. In every match, Ibrahim hit shots off the ball wall with less regularity than his opponents: most prominently, Dessouky made use of the rebound twice as frequently as Ibrahim. This ability and desire to change the tempo of an exchange may come with experience, but for now any opponent of Ibrahim can expect the young Egyptian to maintain a high tempo throughout. 

Ibrahim took the pace off and used the back wall significantly less than his opponents

The final aspect we’ll explore briefly here is Ibrahim’s opponents’ approach to that age-old dilemma for the right-handed player: How – or indeed whether – to adjust tactics to take on a left-hander. A comparison of shot-location heat maps paints an interesting picture. A typical heat map of a match between two right-handed players tends to burn brightest, unsurprisingly, in the backhand graveyard. Mueller, Elshorbagy and (to a lesser extent) Salazar switched up, trying to take Ibrahim’s devastating forehand out of the equation, hitting a high percentage of shots to his backhand. All three lost. 

These heat maps show where a player tended to hit their shots from. All three of Mueller, Salazar and Elshorbagy made a concerted effort to hit to Ibrahim’s backhand, the right hand side of the court

Dessouky, on the other hand, seemed to play Ibrahim as if he were right-handed, hitting to Ibrahim’s backhand only rarely. In keeping the exchanges in the left graveyard, Dessouky allowed Ibrahim to hit a high number of forehands, but restricted the angles for exploitation afforded by cross court shots to his supposedly weaker backhand. Dessouky hit just one in three shots cross court, the fewest of any of Ibrahim’s opponents in Qatar. Whether this is a productive approach against Ibrahim can’t be judged on the basis of one match alone, but is one to keep an eye on in the months and years to come. 

Indeed, immediately clouding this picture was the average shot location in Elshorbagy’s successful Games against Ibrahim. Elshorbagy won Games 2 and 3, Games in which he targeted Ibrahim’s backhand. Games 4 and 5 followed a notably different pattern: as depicted by the heat maps, Ibrahim gained most success when Elshorbagy played to his forehand.

Elshorbagy won G2 and G3, Games in which he targeted Ibrahim’s backhand

In a year of uncertainty, one thing seems assured: Ibrahim to continue his rise up the rankings. To some, he has Shabana’s forehand; others see elements of Ramy. 21 years old, still a student, but with plenty of eyes around the squash community glued to his every stroke.