Mosaad and Castagnet Come Through Marathon Canary Wharf Semis to Set Friday Final by Alan Thatcher photos squashpics.com
March 10, 2016
- Top seed Omar Mosaad fought back from two games down to win a
bruising semi-final against Spain’s Borja Golan. In the final he meets
French No.3 seed Mathieu Castagnet, who won a tremendous battle against
Australia’s Cameron Pilley.
The 6ft 4in tall Mosaad, known
as the Hammer of Thor, finally wore down Golan to win 8-11, 11-13,
11-6, 11-9, 11-5 after 98 minutes of brutal combat on court.
In
a match with more than 50 decisions from referee John Massarella,
Mosaad finished the stronger of the two players, despite a punishing
recent schedule that has included finishing runner-up in Colombia and
reaching the semi-finals in Chicago.
With the temperature
inside the East Wintergarden slightly cooler than in previous evenings
this week, Mosaad struggled to find his normal length.
Golan
played inspired squash, was faster around the front of the court, but
ultimately caused his own undoing by losing his focus and spending too
much time in debates with the referee.
He was warned about
delaying the serve, received a conduct warning, and finally a conduct
stroke as Massarella lost patience with the endless stoppages.
Mosaad made a number of errors early in the match, some caused by Golan’s tight play and others totally unforced.
Golan closed out the first game from 8-8, and held his nerve to win the second 13-11.
From 5-5 in the third, Mosaad strung together a dominant phase to win it 11-6.
The
tables were turning but in the fourth Mosaad let slip an 8-5 lead and
Golan was two points away from winning the match at 9-9. This time
Mosaad finished the game with purpose and precision to take it 11-9.
In
the fifth, Mosaad moved ahead from 4-4 as Golan’s outbursts grew more
frequent and the tall Egyptian closed out the match with a six-point
cushion.
After the match Mosaad admitted he was feeling
tired after his recent international travels but was sure he would be
able to rise to the occasion in the final.
He said: “I’m
feeling tired right now – when I lost the first two games I thought I
had lost the match and I was already thinking about a flight home
tomorrow.
“But then I managed to get back into it and force
it to 2-2 and I’m very happy that I managed to push through and reach
my first Canary Wharf final.
“I lost my concentration when I
was up in the first game so I tried to push myself concentration wise
in the third and fourth. The important thing now is to rest and prepare
as best as I can for the final tomorrow.”
Castagnet looked
fresh throughout his duel with Pilley and finished strongly to win the
deciding fourth game after Pilley had led 8-5 and held game ball at
10-8.
Earlier, Castagnet had dominated the opening game
before Pilley responded positively in the second, scraping it 13-11
after holding game ball at 10-8.
Pilley loves to play with enormous pace, but perhaps Castagnet’s speed around the court was the more significant factor.
He
ripped through the third game 11-1 as Pilley took a breather and
refused to give up in the fourth when the Australian must have thought
he had done enough to take the match to five.
After 87 minutes, Castagnet clinched victory without needing to dive once. He must be saving it up for the final.
Castagnet said: “I am feeling so good right now. He’s such a great player and it was very stressful tonight.
“I was pushing so hard in that fourth to get to every ball because I knew going to a fifth game would be a nightmare.
“I
was tiring and he’s so skilled with the racket that the fifth game
would have been very difficult. I stayed focused and tried to replicate
what I did in the second game to save that one.
“I have been
working so hard for 15 years and to reach the Canary Wharf Classic
final is a great achievement – so many strong players have won the
title here and I will be pushing so hard to join them tomorrow.
“Tomorrow
I know Omar will be a tough match. He has so much experience and I
remember a match in Hong Kong last year when he was 2-0 down and saved
five or six match balls to win so I will be preparing to play him at
100 per cent and hopefully I can play well.”
PSA M70 Canary Wharf Squash Classic, East Wintergarden, Canary Wharf, London
