Egypt’s Asal and Mosaad Claim Big Round Two Wins at Black Ball Open by Ellie Mawson
photo PSA
December 5, 2018
- Egyptians Mostafa Asal and Omar Mosaad both enjoyed huge wins as
round two of the CIB Black Ball Squash Open PSA Platinum tournament
came to a close in Cairo, Egypt.
World Junior Champion Asal caused the biggest upset of the day when he
defeated England’s World No.19 Declan James in a five-game thriller at
the Black Ball Sporting Club to reach the last 16 of a PSA Platinum
tournament for the first time.
At just 17-years-old the young Egyptian proved that he has all the
attributes to be a serious contender on the PSA World Tour after he
battled back against the Englishman to prevail 15-13, 4-11, 3-11,
12-10, 11-8 in 89 minutes.
World No.52 Asal will now face World No.2 Ali Farag for a place in the
quarter-finals after he comfortably overcame France’s Lucas Serme in
straight-games earlier in the day.
“It feels incredible to play in front of this atmosphere,” said
17-year-old Asal following his victory. “I want to thank all of the
people that came to cheer for me.
“It feels amazing, to be able to play the World No.2 – he is my idol and I hope to be able to play a good match with him.”
Elsewhere, it was also a good day for Asal’s compatriot Mosaad, who
took out Colombia’s World No.6 Miguel Angel Rodriguez in another long
five-game battle.
Cairo-born Mosaad started strongly in front of his home crowd and was
able to survive two comebacks from the ‘Colombian Cannonball’ to book
his place in the last 16 of the PSA Platinum tournament.
The Egyptian will now face India’s Saurav Ghosal in the next round, after he defeated Egypt’s Karim Ali Fathi in straight-games.
“I was expecting this tough match,” said 30-year-old Mosaad. “I have
played a couple of matches with Miguel and they have all been 3-2, so I
just played my game and focused.
“Playing against Miguel is really tough, he’s so fast around the court.
I had to be strong mentally more than physically, so I’m really happy
with my performance today.”
Elsewhere at the Black Ball Sporting Club, England’s Chris Simpson enjoyed a big win over Egypt’s World No.26 Zahed Salem.
The 31-year-old Englishman was forced to dig deep to hold off a
resilient Salem to claim an 11-7, 5-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-9 in 75 minutes.
“It’s a massive win,” said World No.40 Simpson. “So far this season
I’ve not been confident, I lost from match ball up in my last
tournament and then in the fourth I thought about that a little bit and
I thought ‘right, concentrate’ but he came back. In the fifth when I
was 10-7 up I think I again played some not so great rallies but I was
just willing myself to win somehow.”
Simpson will now face New Zealand’s Paul Coll in the next round after
he claimed a dominant straight-games win over United States No.1 Todd
Harrity.
The other last 16 clash will see Germany’s World No.3 Simon Rösner face
France’s Gregoire Marche after they enjoyed respective wins over
Scotland’s Alan Clyne and Hong Kong’s Leo Au.
The third round takes place on Thursday December 6 when the remaining
players battle it out for a place in the quarter-finals. Matches from
the glass court will be shown live on SQUASHTV (Rest of World) and
Eurosport Player (Europe only) from 12:00 local time (UTC+2).
Results: CIB Black Ball Squash Open Round Two (Bottom half)
[3] Simon Rösner (GER) bts Alan Clyne (SCO) 3-0: 11-9, 11-5, 11-7 (31m)
Gregoire Marche (FRA) bt Leo Au (HKG) 3-2: 7-11, 7-11, 12-10, 11-3, 9-3 retired (74m)
Chris Simpson (ENG) bt Zahed Salem (EGY) 3-2: 11-7, 5-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-9 (75m)
