2023 New Zealand Open: SquashLevels Analysis

The 2023 New Zealand Open concluded on 10th December with, soon-to-be husband and wife, Paul Coll and Nele Gilis taking home the trophies.

Paul Coll of New Zealand beat England’s Marwan ElShorbagy and overcoming the disappointment of his previous year’s final defeat to Marwan’s brother, Mohamed ElShorbagy. While Nele Gilis put in a dominant performance against younger sister Tinne Gilis, in Tauranga.

SquashLevels has taken the data from the tournament and analysed the most improved players, by the largest percentage level increase, across the tournament, as well as the games which had the biggest impact on player’s levels.

What are Levels?

SquashLevels uses a bespoke algorithm to assess each player’s current playing level based on their results and their opponents.

It focuses on how well they are playing rather than how many rounds they have progressed through. The ratings are updated match-by-match and they give great insight into how ‘in-form’ the players are right now.

Top 10 Movers across the 2023 New Zealand Open:

This table shows the players who had the highest Level increase over the course of the event, their PSA Power Rating before and after the tournament.

In 2020 PSA and SquashLevels revealed the launch of the ‘PSA Power Ratings’ which will provide an accurate, up-to-date indication of a pro player’s current form.

This is often an indication of how players will move across the World Rankings, often highlighting up-and-coming players.

Player Name	Level Before	Level After	Percentage Increase	PSA Power Rating Before Tournament	PSA Power Rating After Tournament
Tong Tsz-Wing	7,940	8,607	8.40%	61	43
Marie Stephan	6,881	7,382	7.28%	87	73
Nele Gilis	12,708	13,556	6.67%	11	10
Ka Yi Lee	8,313	8,814	6.03%	50	51
Velavan Senthilkumar	33,829	34,712	2.61%	65	65
Timothy Brownell	35,101	35,879	2.22%	60	58
Paul Coll	82,008	83,787	2.17%	3	3
Malak Khafagy	8,887	9,068	2.04%	42	39
Gregoire Marche	46,170	47,071	1.95%	26	29
Tong Tsz-Wing	7,940	8,607	8.40%	61	43

Top 10 Best Performances across the 2023 New Zealand Open:

Across the tournament there were the games where players played better than expected against their opponent. This results in their SquashLevel increasing – the table below focuses on those games where the player played above and beyond their expected level, either by winning the game or taking more points off the higher rated player than they were expected to.

#	Player	Opponent	Level Before	Level After	Percentage Increase	Match Score
1	Cheng Nga Ching	Alicia Mead	6297	6903	9.62%	11-6, 11-2, 11-9
2	Tong Tsz-Wing	Ainaa Amani	7940	8607	8.40%	11-3, 11-6, 11-7
3	Marie Stephan	Sophie Fadaely	6881	7382	7.28%	11-3, 11-4, 11-0
4	Rory Stewart	Elijah Thomas	31763	33887	6.69%	11-6, 11-3, 11-2
5	Nele Gilis	Low Wee Wern	12708	13556	6.67%	11-4, 11-7, 11-8
6	Ka Yi Lee	Jessica Turnbull	8313	8814	6.03%	11-6, 11-5, 11-6
7	Aifa Azman	Marie Stephan	8850	9335	5.48%	11-9, 11-1, 8-11, 7-11, 11-4
8	Baptiste Masotti	Abhay Singh	45833	47930	4.58%	11-8, 11-5, 11-1
9	Marwan Elshorbagy	David Baillargeon	58550	60294	2.98%	11-2, 11-7, 11-6
10	Lucy Beecroft	Aira Azman	9149	9419	2.95%	11-8, 11-13, 9-11, 12-10, 11-13

What is SquashLevels?

SquashLevels is a results-based ranking system. As players compete in their leagues and tournaments, their results automatically flow into SquashLevels from their results providers. From here, SquashLevels’ unique algorithm will calculate a Level for each player based on their opponents’ Level, their result including points scores, behavioural modelling and various other factors. SquashLevels rewards a player for performing better than they were expected to based on their Level.