Clean Sweep For Egyptian Men in Windy City Open by Nathan Clarke
photos PSA
February 28, 2015
- 23-year-old Karim Abdel Gawad headlined a clean sweep of victories
for Egyptians during the first day of second round action at the 2015
Windy City Open presented by Guggenheim Partners and EquiTrust Life
Insurance Company in Chicago today with a surprise 3-2 victory over
World No.6 Miguel Angel Rodriguez.
The World No.20, who had failed to make it past the first round in four
of his last five PSA World Series event appearances, produced his best
display in recent month, combining delicate touch with deception and
length, to trouble the highflying Colombian from the outset in what was
a nail-biting matchup.
In a 78-minute encounter, Gawad, who came into the event fresh from
winning the 2015 Pittsburgh Open, played with patience and composure
during some ferocious rallies before eventually completing a
well-earned 11-7, 5-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-4 win.
"Miguel is one of the best players on the tour and it was a tough match against him today," said Gawad.
"I haven't been playing at my best for a while and my focus today was
to change that and try and make sure I put in a good performance and I
am very, very happy to have managed to get a win.
"In the fifth game I had to use all my concentration to make sure I
kept my level up and I'm happy with how I managed to do that."
Gawad will face fellow Egyptian Marwan Elshorbagy in the quarter-finals
after the 21-year-old Bristol-based man from Alexandria also earned a
surprise berth in the last eight after his opponent, four-time World
Champions Amr Shabana, retirement prematurely.
Elshorbagy will be making his first ever appearance in the
quarter-final stage of a PSA World Series event and is joined there by
his elder brother, and World No.1, Mohamed Elshorbagy.
After narrowly avoiding a first round exit at the hands of Fares
Dessouki in a gripping opening encounter, 25-year-old Mohamed hung on
once again, drawing on all his reserves to see off a spirited challenge
from Indian Saurav Ghosal - winning 3-2.
"All credit to Saurav for an amazing performance today because h put me
under a lot of pressure from the start," said Elshorbagy.
"I'm not feeling at my best physically but I'm going to fight for every
point in every match and I'm really glad to have won and still be in
this tournament."
World No.7 Tarek Momen completed a clean sweep for Egypt with a 3-1 win over Swiss champion Nicolas Mueller.
Draw: Second Round, Bottom Half:
[4] Nick Matthew (ENG) v Daryl Selby (ENG)
James Willstrop (ENG) v [5] Peter Barker (ENG)
[8] Omar Mosaad (EGY) v Alister Walker (BOT)
Cameron Pilley (AUS) v [2] Gregory Gaultier (FRA)
