Shabana Right Back in Action in Detroit by Howard Harding 26 January 2014
- Just 24 hours after winning his first major PSA World Tour ranking
title for more than two years at the JP Morgan Tournament of Champions
in New York, Egypt squash maestro Amr Shabana maintained his winning
ways some 1,000 km away in Detroit, Michigan, where he defeated
compatriot Omar Abdel Meguid in the opening round of the Motor City
Open.
The PSA International
70 event at Birmingham Athletic Club in Bloomfield Hills, Detroit - one
of the longest-established events on the PSA Tour, first staged in 1999
- has attracted a star-studded field including 50% of the players in
the world top 20, and four former champions!
Title-holder Shabana, the 34-year-old fourth seed, needed 61 minutes to see off 25-year-old qualifier Meguid 11-5, 18-16, 11-2.
"Omar has incredible
hands, a very wide reach and any loose shots he's going to put away,"
said former World No.1 Shabana (pictured above with Meguid) later.
"That's why the second game was crucial. If he would've won that second
game, it could've turned the match around so that's I really pushed it."
Another Egyptian
stands in Shabana's way of a place in the semi-finals after fifth seed
Omar Mosaad survived a 90-minute battle with Ong Beng Hee to beat the
2012 champion from Malaysia 9-11, 11-7, 11-6, 7-11, 11-9.
Finland's Olli
Tuominen pulled off the day's only upset when he beat Tarek Momen, the
No6 seed from Cairo, 13-11, 7-11, 11-3, 8-11, 11-8 in 82 minutes - thus
putting paid to an all-Egyptian top half of the draw.
"Tarek is a very good
player and I have never beaten him before," said Tuominen. "He's so
precise and hits ball a lot to the front, but I was able to get most of
them back. I just managed to keep my game accurate enough, not give him
many opportunities so that he made some mistakes and punish him a
little bit when he came to the front and move him around.
"It's one of the best matches I've played in a while," added the 2004 runner-up.
Tuominen, the
34-year-old World No.28, now faces favourite Mohamed Elshorbagy, the
World No.4 and 2011 champion from Alexandria who despatched French
qualifier Gregoire Marche 11-2, 11-6, 11-5.
Second seed Karim
Darwish leads Egyptian interest in the other half of the draw. The 2010
champion, ranked 6 in the world, beat Egyptian qualifier Marwan
Elshorbagy 12-10, 11-9, 11-3.
RESULTS: PSA International 70 Motor City Open, Bloomfield Hills, Detroit, USA
Quarter-final line-up: [1] Mohamed Elshorbagy (EGY) v [Q] Olli Tuominen (FIN) [4] Amr Shabana (EGY) v [5] Omar Mosaad (EGY) [3] Peter Barker (ENG) v [7] Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL) [2] Karim Darwish (EGY) v [8] Cameron Pilley (AUS)
