Day SEVEN : Quarters Part One

Quarter-Finals at Manchester Central

Action moved to Manchester Central today, with four quarter-finals in the top halves of the draws. The afternoon session saw top seeds Nour El Sherbini and Gregory Gaultier safely through to the semis, while in the evening Egyptians Nour El Tayeb and Mohamed ElShorbagy dashed British hopes.

DRAWS & RESULTS  NOW IN MANCHESTER  PHOTO GALLERY

Top seeds cruise into semis

[1] Nour El Sherbini (Egy) 3-0 [5] Nouran Gohar (Egy)                      11-7, 11-3, 11-4 (30m)

Top seeds Nour El Sherbini and Gregory Gaultier both won comfortably in the opening session at Manchester Central to move into the semi-finals without undue trouble and a rest day to come.

Sherbini faced compatriot Nouran Gohar in a repeat of their semifinals in the last two Worlds, and made it three wins out of three.

The opening stages were closely contested, but from mid-game Sherbini pulled away – helped by a number of stroke and no let decisions against Gohar to take the lead 11-7.

The defending champion eased through the second 11-3, then came from 0-3 down in the third to lead 10-3, finishing the match off 11-4 in just half an hour.

“It’s always tough playing someone from your own country,” said Nour. “Nouran is always a hard opponent, you know she’ll make a plan based on the last match, it’s like a game of Chess, I try to mix up the pace a lot.

“Trying to defend the title there’s more pressure, but I try not to think about it, I’ll just keep trying to play my best …”

[1] Gregory Gaultier (Fra) 3-0 [8] Paul Coll (Nzl)                               11-6, 11-5, 11-4 (44m)

Gaultier, facing New Zealander Paul Coll for the fifth time in a year – including last year’s Worlds in Cairo – continued his winning run as he controlled the match from start to finish.

Gaultier won 11-6, 11-5, 11-4, Coll making a series of unforced errors at the end of the match, in just 44 minutes, around half the time of their recent encounters.

“I’ve had a stressful few months,” said Greg, “with my wife giving birth yesterday I have been a bit tense so it has been difficult to concentrate and think straight.”

“I think your wife had the worst of it!” quipped MC Jenny Duncalf.

“At the end of the day I’ve played for thirty years so I know I can turn it on when needed.

“I’m taking it one game at a time, so I don’t want to think about the trophy or the final because when I did that in the past that’s when I fail.”

British hopes dashed as Tayeb and ElShorbagy progress

[8] Nour El Tayeb (Egy) 3-0 [16] Tesni Evans (Wal)                      11-9, 11-7, 11-9 (47m)

The evening session saw the end of British hopes for this year’s event as Nour El Tayeb beat Tesni Evans in three close games, and Mohamed Elshorbagy brought down the curtain on Nick Matthew’s World career with a four game win.

Tayeb got the better of a close first game against Wales’ Evans, fired at 7-all by an Evan appeal on a no let that was converted in to a stroke.

The Egyptian U.S. Open champion stayed ahead to double her lead, then got the better of a tense ending which saw the video referee again involved, awarding a stroke on match ball to Tayeb, to Evans’ dismay.

“Tesni beat Laura Massaro and not many do that,” said Tayeb. “And we were one-all this year, so I knew it was going to be a tough match, just happy to get through !!”

[3] Mohamed ElShorbagy (Egy) 3-1 [5] Nick Matthew (Eng)    11-7, 11-6, 5-11, 11-6 (53m)

Nick Matthew, playing the last of his 1`7 consecutive World Championships, made a good start against his Egyptian rival, leading 5-1 in the opening game.

The Egyptian got the better of a mammoth rally which proved to be the turning points as he recovered to lead 6-5 and took the game 11-7.

ElShorbagy was on top in the second, but another good start bey the Englishman, 6-2 in the third, was converted to the delight of the home crowd.

The reprieve was shortlived though as ElShorbagy quickly advanced to 10-4 in the fourth, and although Matthew saved two match balls, Elshorbagy’s win soon enough arrived.

“I was playing of the greatest of the game,” said Elshorbagy. “

He is going to step it up every time we play, and I always step it up against him. 

“I think we played great quality squash today, we played in good spirit, and it was the high quality match I was expecting.

“If somebody wanted to give me a tough draw for this event they couldn’t have done any better than that! I get to play Ramy, then Nick, then Greg! You don’t normally get that in the same tournament.

“Every match is another tournament in itself. It’s still a long way to go, and I can’t wait to be back here in the semis.”

DRAWS & RESULTS  NOW IN MANCHESTER  PHOTO GALLERY