Rosner Romp Prevents English Clean Sweep by Nathan Clarke 25TH MAR 2015 -
German World No.9 Simon Rösner prevented the semi-finals of the Canary
Wharf Classic from being an all-English affair for the first time in
the tournament’s history with a resounding 3-0 victory over former
World No.1 James Willstrop at London’s East Wintergarden earlier today.
The powerful man from Paderborn, who stands 6’ 3”, had never previously
beaten the 31-year-old Pontefract-based Englishman but put in an
assured performance as he romped to an 11-7, 11-3, 11-3 triumph in just
36-minutes, ending Willstrop’s hopes of winning the PSA International
50 title for the fifth time in his career.
“Obviously I’m very happy to be in the semi-finals here for the very
first time and it feels amazing to get my first win over James,” said
Rösner.
“He’s just come back from surgery and he’s been playing good squash but
I’m very pleased with how I kept my focus today and I was pleased with
my performance because I made very few unforced errors.”
Rösner will take on number two seed Peter Barker, the Essex-based World
No.8 who knocked him out of the competition at the quarter-finals stage
in 2014, while defending champion Nick Matthew will face Daryl Selby as
he aims to add a fifth Canary Wharf Classic trophy to his already
impressive trophy collection.
“I’ve had some very tough battles with Pete over the years and
hopefully I’ll be able to go out there and get my revenge for our
quarter-final match last year,” added Rösner.
34-year-old Matthew came through a testing encounter against dangerous
Egyptian Fares Dessouki, 14-years his junior, coming through 11-7,
10-12, 11-7, 11-8 in 78-minutes to line-up against Selby, who took
125-minutes to get past Spanish champion Borja Golan.
“Fares is a fearless young guys and it was a very tough match – there was only really a couple of points in it,” said Matthew.
“All credit to him because he played with a lot of discipline and
attacked at the right times but I think it was just a case of a little
bit of experience helping me at the end.”
Victory for Matthew would see him reach a fourth consecutive PSA World
Tour event final in 2015 and with a chance of completing an impressive
hat-trick of titles, having already claimed the Swedish Open and Windy
City Open crowns inside the past month.
Results – Quarter-finals:
[1] Nick Matthew (ENG) bt [8] Fares Dessouki (EGY) 3-1: 11-7, 10-12, 11-7, 11-8 (76m)
[6] Daryl Selby (ENG) bt [3] Borja Golan (ESP) 3-2: 11-8, 10-12, 11-7, 3-11, 14-12 (125m)
[2] Peter Barker (ENG) bt [7] Max Lee (HKG) 3-0: 11-4, 11-7, 11-8 (43m)
[4] Simon Rösner (GER) bt [5] James Willstrop (ENG) 3-0: 11-7, 11-3, 11-3 (36m)
Draw: Semi-finals:
[1] Nick Matthew (ENG) v [6] Daryl Selby (ENG)
[2] Peter Barker (ENG) v [4] Simon Rösner (GER)
