Ghosal Overcomes Elias While Mosaad, Momen and Pilley All Progress in Colombia Open by Sean Reuthe photos PSA
February 18, 2016
- Indian World No.20 Saurav Ghosal prevented a huge upset in round one
of the 2016 Taeq SquashColombia PSA Open after he came through a
highly-entertaining five-game battle against 19-year-old Peruvian World
Junior Champion Diego Elias in Cartagena.
In a match that
contained a veritable feast of sumptuous winners, high octane rallies
and energy-sapping exchanges, Ghosal’s experience and superior fitness
eventually made the difference as the 29-year-old took advantage of a
tiring Elias to close out the win with an 11-9, 2-11, 5-11, 11-8, 11-6
margin of victory.
“Diego is a fantastic player,” said Ghosal.
“He’s
the reigning World Junior Champion and I’ve played him twice now in
Colombia, both in Bogota and here today. It’s been absolutely brutal. I
had to get him off the ’T’ because he is so good across the middle of
the court and he has very good shots.
“It is similar to what
one of my role models, Jonathon Power, used to do because he trains
with him quite a bit. He’s an absolute handful and I’m sure that we are
going to have a lot more matches together and hopefully we will
entertain the people of Cartagena and everyone around the world like
this every time.”
Second seed Omar Mosaad has also secured a
quarter-final berth after completing a straightforward 3-0 victory over
fellow Egyptian Zahed Mohamed.
Mosaad dominated the
61-minute affair, with a number of unforced errors from Mohamed in the
early stages of the match allowing the ‘Hammer of Thor’ to quickly
strike up a lead.
Despite a hard-fought finish to the
encounter, the 27-year-old wrapped up the win by an 11-4, 11-4, 13-11
scoreline to advance to the last eight where he will do battle with
Ghosal.
"It’s really tough to play against Zahed, we usually train with each other and he is a talented player," said Mosaad.
"To
play against him is really hard so I tried today to play really well,
especially in these conditions. I’m happy with my performance today.
Maybe I could have focused more in the third game but I think that the
key was that he changed his game a little bit in the third.
"I tried to come back again and I’m happy to win in three."
Egypt’s
Tarek Momen, meanwhile, has also seaeled his spot in the next round
after coming back from a game down to defeat the tenacious Mexican
Cesar Salazar.
An out of sorts Momen started the match
slowly, with Salazar’s tactic of cutting the ball out early on the
volley in the front of the court proving fruitful as the deceptive
Mexican took an unlikely lead in game one. World No.11 Momen soon found
his range though and pulled through to complete an 9-11, 11-9, 11-4,
11-7 victory.
“Today I was very focused and I knew that I was playing a very dangerous opponent,” said Momen.
“I
wanted to get my revenge because last time we played, he beat me 3-0. I
was tired but the only thing that kept me going towards the end was the
fact that I knew that he was tired as well. I’m very glad I won today,
it was a very good match and I hope I can feel better tomorrow.”
Australian
No.1 Cameron Pilley has advanced to the last eight after he powered
past South Africa’s Stephen Coppinger. Pilley was highly accurate
throughout the 58-minute encounter and gradually upped his pace of
attack, with his punishing drives enabling him to control the ’T’ after
moving Coppinger into the back of court. The World No.14 will meet
Momen for a place in the semi-final.
Results: 2016 Taeq SquashColombia PSA Open - First Round (Bottom Half)
