[4] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) 3-1 [27] Declan James (ENG) 11-13, 11-3, 11-7, 11-8 (64m)
You may not have realised but our Declan just had the best of holidays in Cairo, enjoying the SPA and the swimming pool as he had 2 days off, as Mo Shorbagy couldn’t play his second round… Am I jealous. Bet your lovely butt I am.
Apart from the second game, only 6 minutes, the rest of the games was anything but a piece of cake. Declan put Karim through the mill, and Karim will be happy with a few unforced errors that saved his day!
Karim : “I feel great. I think I played really well. Especially the second and third. I’m pleased to get through against a very tough and good player like Declan James.
Youssef is a great friend of mine. He’s my golf partner. So we’ve had some very good battles before and also had very bad memories from matches against him. Last time we played 109 minutes in El Gouna. I’m looking forward to a good match.
“The 2016 win is always in my head, you know. Since I won this tournament, it’s always in my background. I always want to get another title, win another World Championship title.
“You never know how long you still have on court, but at this stage, I just want to enjoy it as much as possible, have good memories and try to play as much as possible.
