Egyptian Quartet to Line Up in Canary Wharf Classic Semi-Finals by Sean Reuthe
photos PSA
March 7, 2018
- The prestigious Canary Wharf Classic will have its first ever
Egyptian winner after a quartet of Egyptian players - led by World No.1
Mohamed ElShorbagy - advanced to the semi-finals of the PSA M100
tournament held in East Wintergarden.
Today featured the end of the best-of-three games scoring format being
trialled at this tournament and ElShorbagy earned his place in the
semi-finals - which will revert back to the traditional best of five
scoring - courtesy of a 2-0 win over Germany’s Simon Rösner.
The reigning World Champion came through to win by an 11-9, 11-4 margin
to ensure that he has now won 19 games on the bounce and he will take
on younger brother Marwan for a place in the final.
“I’m really happy to be in the semis, I’ve never reached the final here
before so I would love to play a final here," said Mohamed.
"I don’t think an Egyptian has won this tournament before, so I would love to be the first one to do it.
“It’s always exciting for me to be back playing here, I love it here and I look forward to playing another match here.”
Mohamed and Marwan will meet for a fourth time this season - with
Mohamed claiming major wins in the World Championship and Windy City
Open finals - after Marwan defeated England’s Daryl Selby in the first
match of the day.
"It was a tough match today against Daryl, he played really well,” Marwan said.
“He had a very clever tactic today against me and all credit to him.
He’s been playing really well, he’s been pushing hard and this match
could have gone either way."
The ElShorbagy brothers will be joined in the semi-finals by World No.3
Ali Farag and World No.6 Tarek Momen, who claimed respective wins over
Australia’s Ryan Cuskelly and England’s James Willstrop.
Farag will appear in a sixth successive PSA World Tour semi-final after
he claimed an 11-9, 10-12, 11-4 victory over World No.19 Cuskelly, who
suffered a hamstring injury during the second game and was unable to
move to the best of his ability in the third.
“I am happy but I can’t say I’m very happy because I’m sad for Ryan,” said Farag.
“It’s never the way you want to win. The first game was very high
quality squash, it was a flip of a coin and I won it. It was a shame to
see him limping because of his hamstring and you can see how great of a
player he is because he almost beat me on one leg."
Momen, meanwhile, had to be at his best to overcome a tenacious display
from four-time Canary Wharf Classic champion Willstrop, winning a
high-quality affair by an 11-5, 9-11, 11-7 margin.
“I have a lot of respect for James, I’ve played him many times and he used to beat me easily,” said Momen.
“I’m just happy that I’m at a level now where I’m competing with him
and it’s unbelievable. He’s a great fighter and has such good racket
skills and he kept pushing until the end."
The semi-finals of the Canary Wharf Classic begin at 18:30 GMT tomorrow
and will be shown live on SQUASHTV (Rest of World), Eurosport Player
(Europe only) and a number of mainstream broadcast channels around the
world including BT Sport, beIN Sports, Fox Sports Australia, Astro and
more.
A challenge match to celebrate the 2018 International Women’s Day will
also be staged at East Wintergarden before the final, with England’s
Sarah-Jane Perry and Alison Waters going head-to-head in the Rackets
Cubed Cup at 17:15, with the action to be shown on SQUASHTV.
