Egyptians Make History On Day Five of World Championship by Sean Reuthe
photos PSA
October 31, 2016
- Egypt has become the first nation in the entire 40-year history of
the iconic PSA Men’s World Championship to have six players in the
quarter-final stage after Ramy Ashour, Fares Dessouky and Tarek Momen
all won to bring the third round action to a close at the Wadi Degla
Club in Cairo.
Coming just a day after Egyptian trio Mohamed ElShorbagy, Karim Abdel
Gawad and Ali Farag booked their quarter-final berths, Ashour led the
charge as he dispatched England’s Daryl Selby by an 11-6, 8-11, 11-5,
11-6 margin.
“I think after the first game I wanted to win and that was a mistake,” said Ashour.
“I should just stick to playing. I got excited and then got hard on
myself. Then the second game went well, but he started pushing me into
all four corners and I wasn't really playing like I was in the first
game.
“He really pushed me, he really tested my movement big time. It was
really deep in all four corners and he was smacking nicks and cross
courts. He just really made me work today and I'm glad because I need
to work harder and harder, if I'm going to win at some point then I
have to earn it.”
Dessouky, meanwhile, came through a gladiatorial five-game battle with
Malaysia’s Nafiizwan Adnan to seal his place in the last eight for the
first time in his career.
The match was highly-charged and swayed between moments of free-flowing
squash and periods of scrappy play, with a number of decisions being
made in an encounter punctuated with lets and strokes.
With the scores tied at two-games apiece, Dessouky – buoyed on by a
partizan home crowd – held the nerves at bay to close out a 13-11,
6-11, 11-6, 10-12, 11-6 victory and seal a last eight berth.
“It was hard for me play the fifth game and be focused from the
beginning because of the last two decisions of the fourth game,”
explained Dessouky, who will meet Ashour in the next round.
“It was a hard match for me. I had to focus in the fifth game, which
was good for me to find out how good I am mentally. I kept pushing in
the fifth game.
“The crowd was incredible, it reminds me of the El Gouna tournament
where they did the same thing to me. They stayed behind me and kept
pushing me forward to win the matches and win the semi-finals there.
It's something good for me and it's incredible."
Momen was also forced to battle through a five-game encounter after he
dispatched World No.7 Marwan ElShorbagy, the younger brother of World
No.1 Mohamed.
Momen twice took a one-game lead, only to see a dogged ElShorbagy come
back both times to restore parity. It was the latter who would
eventually triumph in the decider though, bringing the curtain down on
a 78-minute encounter by a 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-3 margin to set
up a next round meeting with defending champion Gregory Gaultier.
“I’m actually surprised how I managed to get the big lead in the fifth the way I did,” admitted Momen.
“There are a lot of positives to take out of this match. I’m in the
quarter-finals of the World Championship and I’m just trying to enjoy
it as much as possible."
Defending champion Gaultier will join three-time winner Nick Matthew in
the next round as the only non-Egyptian competitors after he overcame
Hong Kong’s Tsz Fung Yip in straight games.
The Frenchman recovered from a slow start to take an 11-8, 11-2, 11-6 victory to keep his hopes of retaining his title alive.
“I felt a bit flat at the end of the warm-up and then I had to wake up
and find the solution quite quick or otherwise I would have lost the
first game in five minutes without making him work,” said Gaultier.
“He was sharp in the first few points, he was on to my balls quickly
and has really good hands at the front. Suddenly, I managed to play at
a faster pace and wake myself up. I won the first and then the
confidence came and it was like having another mini man on the court.”
