English Hopes Extinguished In Canary Wharf Quarters by Nathan Clarke photos squashpics.com
March 9, 2016 -
All hopes of home success at the 2016 Canary Wharf Classic were
extinguishedduring quarter-finals night inside London's East
Wintergarden as top home hopes James Willstrop and Daryl Selby saw
their campaigns dashed by the hands of Egyptian Omar Mosaad and
Frenchman Mathieu Castagnet, respectively.
Four-time winner
Willstrop, who came through a thrilling first round encounter with New
Zealander Paul Coll yesterday, lost out in straight-games to number
three seed Castagnet as the World No.10 produced an inspired
performance full of attacking intent and incredible resilience -
epitomised when, at two-games up, he overturned a 3-8 deficit in the
third game to reel off six consecutive points before taking the game,
and the match, 11-6, 11-6, 11-9.
"The first two games were similar as they went to 5-5 or 6-6 and then he started to get tired," said Castagnet.
"In
the third game, when he was 8-3 up he was playing very good but after a
long rally I saw he was tired so I pushed as hard as I could to get
back into the game and I'm very happy to come back like that and win."
Castagnet
will now take on Australian Cameron Pilley for a place in the final
after number two seed Simon Rösner was forced to concede through
illness during their encounter, while in the top half of the draw it
was top seed Mosaad who triumphed in a tough and testing five-game
battle with Selby.
Mossad stormed into a one-game lead
as he played aggressive, attacking squash that was every inch worthy of
his top seed billing but a response from Selby in the second swung the
match on its head as they duelled it out for over 70-minutes in a
roller-coaster affair that saw momentum swing back and forth throughout
before Mosaad eventually sealed it 11-4, 8-11, 11-3, 4-11, 11-5.
"Playing Daryl here in front of his home crowd is very hard," said Mosaad.
"I
though it was going to be easy after the first game and I was up in the
second as well but he started to play really well. After coming
back from 2-2 I'm very happy to win."
Mosaad will play
Spain's Borja Golan in the semi-finals after the World No.20 defeated
Egyptian Fares Dessouki to reach the last four for the first time in
his career.
