Four Englishmen Reach QFs of El Gouna PSA World Series Squash Tournament

England’s squash players dominated third day’s play at the 2015 El Gouna International, PSA World Series event currently underway at Egypt’s picturesque Red Sea Resort of El Gouna. Four of them won their second round matches on Tuesday and entered the quarterfinals. World no.2 Nick Matthew took four games and 62 minutes in defeating world no. 13 Frenchman Mathieu Castagnet; world no.8 Peter Barker beat Max Lee of Hong Kong in three easy games and World no.16 James Willstrop beat compatriot Chris Simpson in four games. But the most impressive performance was delivered by Essex’s Daryl Selby, who displayed incredible fighting spirit and tenacity to edge out Colombia’s world no.5 Miguel Angel Rodriguez in 5 tough games that consumed 105 minutes. India’s Saurav Ghosal, who had caused a sensation on Monday by defeating Egypt’s world no.7 Tarek Momen in the first round, lost his second round match to another Egyptian, world no.9 Omar Mosaad in four games. After the conclusion of Tuesday’s second round matches, the quarterfinal line-up was completed by world no.1 Mohamed Elshorbagy, world no.6 Ramy Ashour, both from Egypt and world no.2 Gregory Gaultier of France.

Tuesday’s talking point was the fighting quality of England’s Daryl Selby in his second round match against Colombia’s Miguel Angel Rodriguez. Selby, who has slipped to no.15 in world rankings showed his true worth in playing with the aggressively quick Miguel, whose ferocity on squash court is fast becoming another talking point. Miguel had the match under his control as he led Selby by two games to one at 11-8, 9-11, 11-3. But Selby composed himself and refused to yield. He fought hard in the fourth game and after some long rallies, prevailed at 11-9. Just as Miguel showed signs of fatigue, Selby applied more pressure in the decider and finished victorious in 105 minutes at 11-8, 9-11, 11-13, 11-9, 11-4. The Englishman will take on the French world no.3 Gregory Gaultier for a place in the semifinal on Wednesday. In his second round match on Tuesday, Gaultier had an easy three game 11-8, 11-8, 11-3 victory against Egypt’s Karim Abdel Gawad, who is ranked no.18 in the world. Incidentally, Gaultier is the lone non-English or non-Egyptian left in the tournament.

India’s world no.23 Saurav Ghosal had a great beginning on Monday, when he opened with a two-game lead against world no.7 Tarek Momen of Egypt. Afterwards however, the Egyptian discovered his rhythm and feasted on a number of unforced errors from Ghosal to come on level terms. In the final game, both players played their best games but Ghosal held his nerves and edged out Momen 12-10, 11-1, 7-11, 12-14, 11-9 in an 85 minute match. On Tuesday Ghosal failed to continue his form against another Egyptian Omar Mosaad. The world no.9 Mosaad showed the door to the Indian with a 11-4, 11-3, 9-11, 11-8 victory in a little over an hour.

In other matches played on Tuesday, Egyptian world no.1 Mohamed Elshorbagy defeated a qualifier from his own country Mazen Hesham 8-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-6; another Egyptian world no.6 Ramy Ashour defeated compatriot Fares Dessouki 6-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-8; Peter Barker of England beat Max Lee of Hong Kong 11-2, 15-13, 11-5; Nick Matthew of England beat Mathieu Castagnet of France 6-11, 11-5, 11-5, 11-5 and another Englishman James Willstrop defeated compatriot Chris Simpson 11-8, 6-11, 11-6, 11-6.