Mazen Makes Egyptian Magic In Mumbai by Howard Harding 8 September 2013
- Egypt's Mazen Hesham Ga Sabry edged out fellow countryman Zahed
Mohamed in a 61-minute final thriller to win the Maharashtra State PSA
Open, the new PSA World Tour Challenger 15 squash event at the Bombay
Gymkhana in Mumbai, India.
It was unexpected
climax between No4 seed Ga Sabry and unseeded Mohamed, the 21-year-old
from Alexandria who claimed the scalps of both top seed Ong Beng Hee
and third seed Mohd Ali Anwar Reda on his way to the final.
"After dropping the
first game, Zahed comes out all guns blazing in his second of five
shirts on the night with some immaculate length and razor drops,"
explains event spokesman Raj Arora. "The consistency is super solid as
he races through game two; It's 11-3 to Zahed and the capacity crowd is
in for some more drama.
"There's no place to
move outside the court as the packed crowd adds to the rising
temperature. The players take the court with fresh shirts. The crucial
third game gets underway. It's high octane stuff as the quality of
squash scales a high.
"Zahed controlling it
beautifully and the young Mazen playing some gems of his own. After
taking Mazen all over the court Zahed rips a blinder on the forehand
and leads 7-4. Two beauties from Mazen followed by a lucky shot and the
game hangs in the balance. Mazen ups it a bit and rather quickly he's
reeled off another four straight points to take a 2/1 lead."
Mohamed takes the fourth to force a decider - and builds up a 5-2 lead as he looks to claim his third upset.
But world No45 Ga
Sabry - the 19-year-old from Cairo ranked 45 places higher than his
opponent - reclaims the upper hand to survive the tense decider to win
11-5, 3-11, 11-7, 4-11, 11-8 after 61 minutes.
Presentation picture
shows (L to R) PSA South East Asia Representative Ritwik Bhattacharya;
Zahed Mohamed; Mazen Hesham Ga Sabry; and Raj Arora
"The crowd has been
served some delectable fare," concluded Arora. "The juniors have
certainly had many squash lessons all week. The Bombay Gymkhana has
played host to some outstanding talents this week."
The win marks the fifth PSA World Tour title of Ga Sabry's career - and his third this year!
RESULTS: PSA Challenger 15 Maharashtra State PSA Open, Mumbai, India
