Day Two Afternoon : ElShorbagy Equals Gaultier Record

“I was in survival mode when I found myself 2-1 down,” said ElShorbagy afterwards.

“Sometimes you just have to dig in and play a game which makes you feel uncomfortable on court. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but today it worked for me. I’m very happy to get through and tomorrow is another day.

“I was able to pull through pretty comfortable in the fifth. Nathan is a quality player, we’ve trained together for almost 10 years and we know each other’s games very well.

“This event is a journey. It’s going to be a long 10 days and it will be very tiring. The top players want to be in these positions, you want to have the tiredness because that means you have the pressure and expectations on you.

“I think this the 17th or 18th time I’m playing this tournament but there are other players that have experience too. There is Ali [Farag], Paul [Coll], Diego [Elias] and [Mostafa] Asal and I hope everyone will have a good week and we have good quality squash matches.”

“I’d never played Kiera before, and it’s always tricky playing an opponent that you’ve never watched before.

“I didn’t do much preparation because I’ve never seen her play. I have my game plan that I want to play, it doesn’t matter who I’m playing. I was surprised with how she played some shots, but I tried to execute my game plan and it worked well.

“I’m obviously very confident and hopefully it goes well. I’m looking one step at a time and taking it step by step. I’ve been training well, so we’ll see.

“I’m not thinking about it [the eighth World Championship] really. I don’t want to look that far ahead, I just want to focus on how I want to play and perform. It’s the longest tournament we have, so I have to take it match by match, but I definitely want to win the tournament, that’s the goal.”

Garas said: “I just told myself that I had nothing to lose and I had to give it everything I had.

“I’m so happy with my performance today, I think I played and moved really well. Hollie is a very tough opponent, she’s very experienced and has been playing on tour for so long.

“I was very excited to travel here, it’s my first time in Chicago and I like the city.

“I’m so excited to be on court with El Sherbini tomorrow.”

“Luckily, I go to school here, so I didn’t really have to adjust to a time difference,” said Nghiem. “I was feeling confident and there is no number next to my name, the pressure is on her and I was free to play the way I wanted. I tried to be as tough as I could be on court and luckily I came through.

“I’ve spoken to a couple of the English guys and when I told them that I was on at 11.45, they were saying it’s early, but it’s not too bad. My coach is here and I’m really lucky to have him in my corner, I’ve had a lot of support and that crowd behind me helped me get through.

“We went point for point from 2-2 to 9-9 [in the decider]. I don’t remember much about the fifth game, I was trying to stay locked in, I tried to keep getting the ball back and make her play another shot.

“It’s been great, I came here to watch a couple of years ago and it’s awesome. I’m loving Chicago, we’re lucky to have great weather and I’m happy to be here.”