Veteran Razik Masters Teen Abouelghar At Nash Cup by Howard Harding 20 September 2013
- Experience prevailed over youth in The NASH Cup presented by the
Roberts Nash Advisory Group in Canada where 35-year-old Canadian number
two Shahier Razik recovered from 2/1 down to beat Egyptian teenager
Mohamed Abouelghar to claim a place in the semi-finals of the PSA World
Tour Challenger 15 squash event at London Squash Racquets Club in
London, Ontario.
"I am going to give
this one 'match of the day' for two reasons," said event spokesman Dave
Morrish afterwards. "One, it was an amazing match; and two, I didn't
think Shahier was able to win this one before the outset!
"Mohamed is known for
his shots, and boy, he has some! He was clearly feeling his way into
the game in the first, but the experienced Shahier didn't give him too
much to play with and consequently there were a high number of errors
from his younger opponent. First game Shahier 11-8," said Morrish.
"We then experienced
the kind of magic we would expect to see from someone like Ramy
(Ashour)! Outright winners (dead nicks from all areas of the court
including four boasts from the back that just rolled out). Despite a
valiant effort from Shahier, he had no answer to this and Mohamed won
the game 11-2."
The 19-year-old from Cairo went on to take the third, but Razik, the third seed from Toronto, battled back to draw level.
"The waters were now
calm and the young Egyptian was no longer the dominant force that he
had been," continued Morrish. "Shahier took an early 2-0 lead and built
on this with consistent steady squash. His opponent continued to go for
the winners but hit more errors than winners and Shahier took the game
and the match 11-8.
"Fair play to Shahier.
Most people were betting against him after he went 2/1 down. If I were
stuck on a ship in stormy weather I would want Shahier on my ship any
day! Great effort and a great match."
The 11-8, 2-11, 7-11,
11-6, 11-8 victory in 59 minutes takes world No50 Razik through to face
world No37 Joe Lee, the 23-year-old top seed from England.
Lee held off the
challenge of younger fellow countryman Declan James, beating the
20-year-old qualifier from Nottingham 11-5, 11-3, 11-7.
The other semi will
also be an Anglo/Canadian clash - between Montreal's No2 seed Shawn
Delierre and Ben Coleman. Delierre, the Canadian number one, battled
for 90 minutes to see off unseeded Englishman Eddie Charlton 11-9,
11-6, 10-12, 11-1.
Coleman, the
22-year-old world No85, became the only unseeded player to make the
last four after beating experienced Czech number one Jan Koukal.
The world No78 from
Prague had pulled off the first round's only upset when he ousted
fourth-seeded Malaysian Muhd Asyraf Azan. Koukal twice led against
underdog Coleman, but the reigning British U23 champion ultimately
prevailed, winning 9-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-6, 11-4 in 87 minutes to set up
his second Tour meeting in Canada with Delierre.
