Avila Foils Fathi In Toronto PSA Challenger Tussle by Howard Harding 14 November 2013
- Unseeded Mexican Alfredo Avila caused the biggest possible upset in
the Squash Revolution Toronto Cup when he ousted top seed Karim Ali
Fathi to reach the semi-finals of the PSA World Tour Challenger 15
squash event being played across various venues in Canada's largest
city Toronto.
It was at the Toronto
Lawn Tennis Club that Avila, a 22-year-old from Mexico City, recovered
from two games down to beat Egypt's world No 41 Ali Fathi in a match
described by the club's Squash Professional Mark Porter as "a
high-paced marathon".
"Karim dictated the
play at the start of the match," said Porter. "He was hitting the ball
with devastating pace and moving Alfredo around the court with ease.
But the young Avila put on an amazing display of retrieving and
routinely forced Karim to play more shots per rally than he wanted to.
"After dropping the
first two games it appeared that Avila's ability to extend rallies was
paying off as his opponent was starting to slow down," continued the
club spokesman. "Avila seemed to be getting faster as the match wore on
and was able to take the next two games. In the fifth Avila raced off
to a 5-0 lead and never looked back, successfully completing his
comeback and booking a spot in the semis."
The 6-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-3 victory in 74 minutes takes the world No 56 through to meet fourth seed Julian Illingworth.
In a battle also
contested at the same club, eight-time US champion Illingworth, ranked
48 in the world, defeated Australian Rex Hedrick 11-9, 11-5, 11-2 in 56
minutes.
The two players in the
other semi made their quarter-final journeys in somewhat contrasting
styles: Martin Knight, the second seed from New Zealand, fought for
more than an hour to see off rising German star Jens Schoor 11-3, 7-11,
11-5, 11-7, while third-seeded Englishman Jonathan Kemp was handed
victory after just two games when Pakistan's Danish Atlas Khan retired
injured with the score standing at 11-9, 12-10.
RESULTS: PSA Challenger 15 Squash Revolution Toronto Cup, Toronto, Canada
1st round: [2] Martin Knight (NZL) bt Matthew Karwalski (AUS) 8-11, 11-4, 11-6, 11-4 Jens Schoor (GER) bt Dane Sharp (CAN) 11-6, 11-6, 8-11, 7-11, 11-3 Danish Atlas Khan (PAK) bt Scott Arnold (AUS) 11-4, 9-11, 10-12, 11-7, 11-9 [3] Jonathan Kemp (ENG) bt Raphael Kandra (GER) 11-8, 11-8, 11-5 [4] Julian Illingworth (USA) bt Arthur Gaskin (IRL) 11-6, 11-8, 11-6 Rex Hedrick (AUS) bt Gonzalo Miranda (ARG) 12-10, 11-4, 11-5 Alfredo Avila (MEX) bt Lewis Walters (ENG) 11-9, 10-12, 12-10, 11-3 [1] Karim Ali Fathi (EGY) bt Shahier Razik (CAN) 11-7, 7-11, 11-9, 11-7 (81m)
