KUALA LUMPUR: For Malaysian No. 2 Addeen Idrakie, the Egyptian obstacles at the World Squash Championships were a bit too much.
World No. 65 Addeen, who toppled Egypt's world No. 42 Karim El Hammamy in five sets in the first round, went down to Egypt's 2019 world champion Tarek Momen, 11-1, 11-4, 11-7 in Cairo yesterday.
Addeen, 30, a newcomer to the world championships, said: "I'm overall satisfied to have beaten top players like Karim.
"But I feel so tired especially in my legs, after the gruelling match against Karim (which lasted 87 minutes) on Thursday.
"I could not cope with Momen's fast pace. It shows that I need to train much harder. I need to play consistently well and also focus on my shots, especially playing long rallies with top ranked players.
"Although I'm 30, I want to continue to represent Malaysia in competitions for the next five years," said Addeen, whose next tournament is the QSF Open in Doha, Qatar, from May 22-26.