Mighty Momen Ousts Darwish In Windy City from PSA Media
Ashour v Pilley
February 27, 2014
- Egyptian World No.12 Tarek Momen pulled off the upset of the
tournament so far to dispatch compatriot Karim Darwish, the number six
seed and former World No.1, in the first round of the 2014 METROsquash
Windy City Open in Chicago today.
Momen, who was
competing in Chicago for the first time, twice came from behind to
eventually prevail 3-2 in a tough and tense contest and record his
first ever career victory over Darwish.
He will now face
Indian No.1 Saurav Ghosal in the second round on Friday after the
Calcutta-based player beat Welsh wild card Peter Creed 3-0.
“That was definitely one of the biggest wins of my career,” said Momen.
“I have never beaten
Karim before in my career so it’s a very special day for me today and I
think I played really well. I had some concentration lapses which he
took full advantage of and he made it hard for me, but I’m very pleased
with how I kept mentally strong.
“There are so many positives for me to take from the match.
“I train with Karim a
lot in Egypt and there has always been a mental barrier there. He’s a
top player and I used to look up to him a lot and it’s hard when you
are getting closer and it’s mentally very tough to breakthrough so I’m
happy that I managed to break those shackles today.”
Spanish No.1 and World
No.7 Borja Golan survived a tough and testing encounter against
Columbian Miguel Angel Rodriguez in his first round match, coming
through a feisty 86 minute encounter 11-5, 13-11, 11-13, 11-6 to set up
an all-European encounter against German champion Simon Rosner in the
second round.
“The first match of a tournament is always difficult for both players and today was no exception,” said Golan.
“It wasn’t the best
quality match that we have ever played but I think it was a real mental
challenge and those are the kind of games you have to get through in
these tournaments.
“Miguel played really
well today and matches against him are always difficult. We had some
long, tough rallies and he showed his character when I had match ball
in the third game and he managed to take that one so I’m pleased to
have come through in the end.”
Elsewhere Egyptian
trio Mohamed Elshorbagy, Omar Mossad and Karim Abdel Gawad progressed
to the second round, beating Stephen Coppinger, Shawn Delierre and
Karim Ali Fathi, respectively, while French joint World No.1 Gregory
Gaultier wasted no time in dispatching English qualifier Joe Lee 3-0 in
his opening match-up.
2014 Windy City Open: Round One, Bottom Half Results:
Simon Rosner (GER) bt [Q] Chris Simpson (ENG) 3-1: 8-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-5 [69 mins]
[2] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) bt [Q] Joe Lee (ENG) 3-0: 11-5, 11-1, 11-0 [27 mins]
Second Round Draw
[1] Nick Matthew (ENG) v Laurens Jan Anjema (NED) Mathieu Castagnet (FRA) v [8] Peter Barker (ENG) [5] James Willstrop (ENG) v Amr Shabana (EGY) Marwan Elshorbagy (EGY) v [3] Ramy Ashour (EGY) [4] Mohamed Elshorbagy (EGY) v Omar Mosaad (EGY) Saurav Ghosal (IND) v Tarek Momen (EGY) Simon Rosner (GER) v [7] Borja Golan (ESP) Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) v [2] Gregory Gaultier (FRA)
The 2014 METROsquash
Windy City Open presented by Guggenheim and EquiTrust Life Insurance
takes place at the University Club of Chicago from February 26 to March
3.
