Gaultier And Elshorbagy To Meet In Qatar Classic Men's Final by Nathan Clarke
photos squashpics.com
November 5, 2015
- The final of the 2015 Qatar Classic, Men’s PSA World Series
tournament, will see World No.1 Mohamed Elshorbagy renew his rivalry
with World No.3 Gregory Gaultier in a highly anticipated showdown at
the Khalifa Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha tomorrow (Nov 6).
The duo, seeded to meet in the semi-finals of the forthcoming PSA World
Championship which begins on November 15, have met 15 times previously
on the PSA World Tour with Gaultier prevailing on ten occasions,
including their most recent encounter during the semi-finals of the
first World Series event of the season, the Delaware Investments U.S.
Open, just two weeks ago.
With vital PSA Road To Dubai Standings points on offer, as well as the
prospect of gaining a mental edge ahead of an anticipated World
Championship showdown, the pair will give no quarter as they bid to win
one of the most prestigious titles on the PSA World Tour.
“It’s great for me to get to final without dropping a game,” said
Elshorbagy, who dismissed Australian challenger Ryan Cuskelly in a
comfortable straight-games semi-final win.
“I will be fresh for tomorrow. It’s the fourth year in a row that I’ve
made it to the final here on my favourite court and it’s great
confidence before the World Championship. I can’t wait to play the
final tomorrow in front of the crowd here.”
After being forced to dig deep to secure his place in the last four
after going two-games down to Karim Abdel Gawad in the quarters,
Gaultier was once again required to call upon his reserves against
21-year-old maverick Mazen Hesham to book his place in the final.
Hesham shot out of the blocks to take the first game 11-4 as he strung
together a series of un-returnable winners but the 32-year-old from
Aix-en-Provence put his wealth of experience to use to enforce his
authority on the match and win out 4-11, 12-10, 11-9, 14-12 after
59-minutes.
“He’s been flying all week and I really had to give my best today to get through,” said Gaultier.
“In the first game he was on fire and controlling things so I had to
pinch myself and tell myself to push again like yesterday and get out
of his rhythm. I had to make him work and extend the rallies and then I
felt like I played the big points really well.
“My shots came in at the right time but I maybe relaxed a little too
much in the fourth and he came back and that’s something I cannot
afford to do tomorrow against Mohamed because if I give him a chance
then he will take it.
“Mohamed is a very tough opponent but there’s a lot of respect between
us as well. I’m really happy to be back in the final of a major
tournament and hopefully we can put on a good show tomorrow.”
