Defending Champion Shabana Steams Through In Grand Central, First Round Top Half Report by Nathan Clarke January 16, 2015
- 2014 champion Amr Shabana began the defence of his J.P. Morgan
Tournament of Champions title in New York's stunning Grand Central
Terminal today (Jan 16) with an impressive 3-0 win over Finland's Olli
Tuominen.
Shabana was in sublime form as he dispatched his fellow 35-year-old
11-7, 11-4, 11-3 to move into the second round and set up an encounter
with Cameron Pilley after the powerful Australian pulled off a 3-1
victory over Karim Abdel Gawad.
Shabana became the oldest ever winner of a PSA World Series event when
he clinched the 2014 title with victory over French World No.2 Gregory
Gaultier and he'll be aiming to build on his own record in 2015 as he
bids to win PSA World Tour title number 50.
"I'm feeling very good about the match today because you never really
know how you're going to get on until you actually get on court," said
Shabana.
"Olli is a fighter and he never gives you any points so I had to be focused today and I'm very happy to get the win.
"I went on holiday with my family over the Christmas break before
getting back into training and I feel like it's starting to pay off. At
my age you can't really step up training or anything ahead of events -
it's all about putting in the effort and the hard work and I've been
working hard every day to get my mind sharp and be ready for battle.
"Squash is a very tough sport and it's not the kind of sport where you
can cruise along. You have to enjoy it and you have to be in there 100
per cent especially against the players these days so I'm just happy to
be in the mix."
Earlier in the day World No.1 Mohamed Elshorbagy got off to a winning
start in 2015, opening his campaign with a 3-0 victory over American
wildcard Todd Harrity, in a repeat of their 2014 encounter, ending all
hopes of home success in the process.
Harrity was the only US representative in the main draw and despite
putting in a valiant performance against the Egyptian, in which he
forced Elshorbagy to work hard to earn every point, he couldn't find
enough in his locker to cause an upset and eventually fell to an 11-6,
11-7, 11-8 defeat.
Elshorbagy went 23-matches unbeaten in 2014, a run that saw him win
four consecutive tournaments including the US Open and Hong Kong Open,
before falling to Ramy Ashour during the final of the 2014 World
Championships and he'll be keen to resume winning ways in the 'Big
Apple' and will now face Swiss national champion Nicolas Mueller in the
second round.
“I’m very happy to be back in New York and Todd has definitely improved since we played here last year,” said Elshorbagy.
“This is one of the best events we play on tour and the atmosphere is
always fantastic so I’m looking forward to being on court again in a
few days.”
Elsewhere there were wins for Chris Simpson, Tarek Momen and Saurav
Ghosal while Spaniard Borja Golan survived a huge scare against
qualifier Ong Beng Hee, coming from two-games down against the
Malaysian to win 3-2 and move into the second round, which gets
underway on Sunday.
Draw - First Round, Bottom Half: (Saturday Jan 17)
[3] Nick Matthew (ENG) v Daryl Selby (ENG)
Omar Mosaad (EGY) v [Q] Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY)
Mathieu Castagnet (FRA) v [Q] Diego Elias (PER)
Stephen Coppinger (RSA) v [8] Simon Rösner (GER)
[5] Peter Barker (ENG) v Gregoire Marche (FRA)
Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL) v [Q] Joe Lee (ENG)
Alister Walker (BOT) v [Q] Tom Richards (ENG)
Max Lee (HKG) v [2] Gregory Gaultier (FRA)
