Oakville’s Hollie Naughton is going for another title this week at the 2022-2023 PSA squash World Championships in Chicago after an early defeat at the Britsih Open last month.
Naughton, who has been training in England, started off the British Open strong by defeating the 45th in the world Enora Villard of France in three straight games, winning the match (11-5,11-5,11-5). Naughton put up a great fight in the second round, winning the first game of the match, but was unable to defeat the 7th in the world Olivia Fiechter of the United States (9-11,11-2,11-4,11-2).
"I think it played really well. In the first game, I kind of implemented what I've been working on and then unfortunately, It fell into pieces after that," says Naughton about the early departure from the British Open.
"I'm just trying to focus on what I did in the first game and make sure that I keep doing that for the whole match rather than just one game. I've analyzed the match with my coach and kind of know now hopefully, what to look for next time."
Naughton, who is ranked 17th in the world, has been working hard on integrating new techniques into her game this season and is confident that the new techniques she is working on will improve her games after lots of trial and error.
"I would say, revealing that the things that we're working on and wanting to implement into my game are coming," says Naughton. "I've got a lot of things I'm trying to change and add into my game, which just takes some time. I think the mental side is what is the biggest thing that I'm trying to work on right now is consolidating that and making sure that it's rock solid all the way through not just patches."
In the first round of the 2023 PSA World Championships, 28-year-old Naughton faced off against 21-year-old Jana Shiha of Eygpt on Thursday, May 4. The game was close but Haughton was able to secure the victory after 5 games (5-11,11-7,11-5,10-12,11-6).
She now advances into the second round of the championships where she will face off against 5th in the world Amanda Sobhy of the United States. Naughton and Sobhy's match is scheduled for today, Friday, May 5.