Just eight players left in the inaugural CIB Black Ball Squash Open – seven of the top seeds and five Egyptians still in with a chance of claiming the final PSA Platinum title of the year.
Gawad downs top seed ElShorbagy,
Coll ousts Rosner, Farag and Momen advance
Seven of the top seeds had won through to today’s quarter-finals, but seeds one and four didn’t make it to the semis as Karim Abdel Gawad and Paul Coll ousted Mohamed ElShorbagy and Simon Rosner respectively,
Coll quickly went 0-6 down in the opening game, too big a deficit to recover, but was largely in control for the rest of the match with Rosner unable to impose in his usual way.
Second seed Ali Farag was similarly in control for the most part over unseeded Saurav Ghosal, the Indian only able to briefly threaten in the second game before Farag ran out the three-nil winner.
Gawad’s three-nil win over top seed and world #1 ElShorbagy was a high-quality affair, Cairo v Alexandria with the vast majority of the packed crowd in Gawad’s corner. After a blistering start from Gawad, the next two games were point for point, but Gawad it was who won both.
The last semi-final spot went to Tarek Momen who maintained his winning record over compatriot Mohamed Abouelghar, controlling the fourth game to set up a semi-final meeting with Gawad.
[6] Paul Coll (Nzl) 3-1 [4] Simon Rosner (Ger) 5-11, 11-3, 11-7, 11-3 (54m)
[2] Ali Farag (Egy) 3-0 Saurav Ghosal (Ind). 11-6, 11-9, 11-3 (34m)
[7] Karim Abdel Gawad (Egy) 3-0 [1] Mohamed ElShorbagy (Egy) 11-4, 11-8, 12-10 (57m)
[3] Tarek Momen (Egy) 3-1 [8] Mohamed Abouelghar (Egy) 11-9, 7-11, 11-9, 11-5 (55m)
MATCH REPORTS & QUOTES :
[jbutton size=”small” link=”https://blackballsquash.tumblr.com/post/180893728357/collrosner-it-was-all-about-who-wanted-it-more” newpage=”yes” color=”black”]COLL v ROSNER[/jbutton] [jbutton color=”black” size=”small” link=”https://blackballsquash.tumblr.com/post/180898663137/they-said-tarek-momen” newpage=”yes”]MOMEN v ABOUELGHAR[/jbutton] [jbutton color=”black” size=”small” link=”https://blackballsquash.tumblr.com/post/180896862317/they-said-karim-abdel-gawad” newpage=”yes”]GAWAD v ELSHORBAGY[/jbutton] [jbutton color=”black” size=”small” link=”https://blackballsquash.tumblr.com/post/180894985812/they-said-ali-saurav” newpage=”yes”]FARAG v GHOSAL[/jbutton]
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