Gritty Selby Survives Montreal Marathon by Howard Harding 5 October 2013
- England's second seed Daryl Selby was taken the full distance by
unseeded Frenchman Mathieu Castagnet before surviving a 98-minute
quarter-final marathon in the Financière Banque Nationale Montreal
Open, the PSA World Tour International 35 squash event in its fifth
year in Montreal, Canada.
Playing on an
all-glass court at the Montreal Forum, world No14 Selby came back from
two games down to beat the rapidly-improving Frenchman - ranked 30 in
the world - 8-11, 8-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-4.
"Sometimes squash is
just about pure grit and determination," the 30-year-old from Essex
told his Twitter followers later. "Proud of myself for digging very
deep to beat Mathieu from 2-0 down."
Selby, runner-up in
the event in 2010, now faces surprise English opponent Adrian Waller,
the unseeded world No35 who stunned fourth-seeded compatriot Chris
Simpson 11-3, 11-7, 11-9.
Channel Islander Simpson is playing in his first event since celebrating a career-high world No21 ranking this month.
The other semi-final
will be the match predicted by the draw - between Spanish favourite
Borja Golan and India's No3 seed Saurav Ghosal.
Golan, the world No9
from Santiago de Compostela, also prevailed in a marathon battle - a
four-game encounter which lasted 102 minutes, but included a 23-minute
injury break.
Scotland's world No32
Alan Clyne took the opening game and forced the second to a tie-break -
but the Spanish number one ultimately prevailed 9-11, 12-10, 11-5, 11-9.
Ghosal, the
highest-ranked Indian of all-time who celebrated a best-ever world
number 17 this month, was also taken to four games by Omar Abdel Aziz -
but overcame his 30-year-old Egyptian opponent in less than an hour,
winning 11-3, 11-4, 2-11, 11-4.
"Happy to win my match
3-1 today," tweeted the 27-year-old from Kolkata later. "Aziz played
some good stuff but thankfully my squash was better than yesterday!"
RESULTS: PSA International 35 Financière Banque Nationale Montreal Open, Montreal, Canada
