Coppinger Joins Gaultier, Ashour, Matthew & Elshorbagy In World Championship Quarters by Nathan Clarke
Elshorbagy photo courtesy WSF
November 18, 2014
- Unseeded Stephen Coppinger, the World No.24 from Cape Town, pulled
off what he described as the biggest win of his career as he beat
Egyptian World No.9 Tarek Momen to move into the quarter-finals of the
2014 Qatar PSA World Championship.
The 30-year-old, who knocked World No.11 Daryl Selby out in round one,
put in a thunderous performance to get past Momen in an 85-minute
thriller, completing the victory with a dramatic final rally to take
the match 12-10, 9-11, 14-12, 8-11, 11-8.
It's a victory that sees him become the first South African since
Roland Watson in 1979 to reach the quarter-finals and he will now take
on World No.1 Mohamed Elshorbagy, conqueror of German Simon Rösner, for
a place in the semi-finals.
"Considering the setting, the circumstance and that this is the World
Championship, this is without a shadow of a doubt the biggest win of my
career," said Coppinger.
"I was just a few points away from a win and then had to start all over
again but I done something similar in the first round so I had the
belief that I could do it.
"I'm in the quarters now and I don't think any player gets there
easily, we've all had our own battles. I've come through a few of those
so I'm mentally in the right place, so lets see what happens tomorrow."
Australia's top ranked squash player, Cameron Pilley, joined Coppinger
as the only other unseeded player in the last eight after he defeated
Botswanan Alister Walker 3-0.
Pilley, the current World No.20 from Yamba, took out World No.8 Peter
Barker in his first round match and followed up that performance with
an impressive and dominant display against Walker to set up a last
eight encounter against World No.2 Gregory Gaultier.
"I'm absolutely stoked to be in the quarters of the World Championship," said Pilley.
"It's an awesome feeling, especially after the last few months where I've been out of form.
"Alister likes to use his physical attributes on the court and like
with every player, I done what I could to neutralise their talents, and
today everything worked to a tee for me."
Elsewhere defending champion Nick Matthew survived a tough test against
Saurav Ghosal of India to set up a last eight battle with four-time
champion Amr Shabana while two-time winner Ramy Ashour will meet
Spanish champion Borja Golan after winning a thrilling match with
Colombian Miguel Angle Rodriguez.
2014 Qatar PSA World Championship - Quarter-final Draw:
[1] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) v Cameron Pilley (AUS)
[6] Borja Golan (ESP) v [4] Ramy Ashour (EGY)
[3] Nick Matthew (ENG) v [5] Amr Shabana (EGY)
Stephen Coppinger (RSA) v [2] Mohamed Elshorbagy (EGY)
