Seeds Sail Into $25K PSA Grasshopper Cup Semis
from Squashsite365
April 26, 2012 - After a first round diet of marathon matches (average duration 68 minutes) the packed crowd in Zurich were treated to four quarter-final masterclasses by the top four Grasshopper Cup seeds (average, 32 minutes).
Match reports from Mark David Mayer, Steve Buchli and Carsten Els
In the first encounter of the quarter finals Karim Abdel Gawad proved to be just a bit to strong for his Danish opponent, Kristian Frost.
Karim showed well crafted shot making in the first game and it seemed as Kristian was struggling from the hit to his knee he had received from his oponent in his last match yesterday.
But the strong Dane never gave up und dug out Karim's nick shots in the second game and leveled at 8, 9 and 10 all.
The talented Egyptian wasn’t prepared to let Kristian back in the game and kept up tough resistance and Kristian - after losing the second game very narrowly in the end - eventually faltered in three games, 11/5, 13/11, 11/5 in 24 minutes.
The second quarter final saw the rising unseeded Englishman Charles Sharpes up against the number 3 seeded Olli Tuominen.
Unlike yesterday Olli was able to put his game plan on the table, which gave him a straight 3/0 win in which the Finn was most of the time just a little bit faster, more precise and made less mistakes than Charles.
And at that level little things can make a huge difference. In the end he needed 39 Minutes to rush through to the semis.
The local hero Nici Müller gave the crowd what they hoped for, going into semis by winning against Omar Abdel Meguid.
The Egyptian is still recovering from an injury expressed at the beginning and had problems holding up the fast pace from Müller, losing the first game 11/5.
The local crowed also supported Meguid, who got inspired and was able to tie the second game until the business end, finally giving way in the end 11/7.
Not making any errors and killing almost every loose ball in “Müller”-Style at the front court, Nici raced through the last game in just 6 minutes, closing it out 11/3 for a clear 3/0 win in 34 minutes.
To finish the night Daryl Selby made clear why he is the no. 1 seed, not giving any chance to Jan Koukal in the whole of their match. Selby controlled the ball and sent his younger opponent exploring the corners.
Koukal tried to up the pace but Selby never got in trouble, whereas Koukal had to deal with the pressure of the returns and was forced play tighter when errors occurred.
Selby got through in three straight games in 34 minutes of squash. Until now Selby had not to prove his world class, but tomorrow he will face the flying Fin Olli Tuominen where he certainly must go a faster pace.
DRAW
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