The first round of the El-Gouna International Squash Open, which is taking place from 8 to 13 April, ended on Monday with seven Egyptian players out of twenty making it through to the second round, and no major surprises.

Egypt top seed Karim Darwish (world number 4), Ramy Ashour (world number 5), Amr Shabana (world number 6) and Mohamed El-Shorbagy (world number 8) registered easy victories in the first round.

Hisham Ashour (world number 16), Tarek Momen (world number 20) and Ali Reda (world number 27) completed the Egyptian legion in the second round.

Top seed James Willstrop from England saw little resistance from his Swiss opponent Nicolas Mueller, winning 3-1. Former world champions Nick Matthew easily went over Andrew Wagih from Egypt 3-0.

Round two will be played on 10 April.

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