2018 QUARTERS : It’s all Egypt
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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.
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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.
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“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.”
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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.”
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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.
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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.“
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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.
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“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.”
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The semi-finals 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.