17-Mar, Semi-Finals:
It's the fourth day of play at the new for this year venue, Halle 622.
You can watch live on SquashTV / Eurosport
Player, plus we'll have updates on our Twitter feed,
with reports and photos to follow here on Today when it's
all over.
Semi-Finals:
[7] Ramy Ashour (Egy) 3-0[1] Gregory Gaultier (Fra)
11-6, 11-8, 11-8 (45m)
[2] Mohamed ElShorbagy (Egy) 3-0 James Willstrop (Eng)
11-9, 11-8, 11-8 (47m)

ElShorbagy and Ashour to meet in mouthwatering Grasshopper Cup
final
PSA report
World No.1 Mohamed ElShorbagy, the man who has dominated the PSA
World Tour throughout the 2017/18 season, is set to lock horns
with compatriot and nemesis Ramy Ashour, the three-time World
Champion, in what promises to be a mouthwatering finale to the
2018 Grasshopper Cup.

The duo, who will meet for the eleventh time on the PSA World
Tour - in a seventh final - have been in superb form so far
during the PSA M100 tournament in Zurich and will go into
tomorrow's match with hopes of rekindling the rivalry that saw
them contest two of the greatest matches in squash history
during the 2014/15 season.

In the finals of both the 2014 World Championship and 2015 El
Gouna International it was Ashour who triumphed in thrilling
circumstances but since then the 30-year-old has largely been
absent from the Tour due to injury, while ElShorbagy, who has
assumed the mantle of the sport's most dominant player, has gone
from strength-to-strength - coming through a supremely high
quality last four battle with James Willstrop to underline his
authority with an 11-9, 11-8, 11-8 win.

"This season has been unbelievable for me so far," said
ElShorbagy, who has claimed seven titles so far this season.
"This is the third tournament in a row and the third final in a
row - there's so much work that goes in behind the scenes to try
and recover from each match and come back and perform like I'm
doing right now against these great competitors.
"But these are the kind of challenges that I live for and try to
survive - victory tastes much better this way and tomorrow I
will be giving it big shot.
"Ramy has been playing unbelievable this week and we alway play
incredible matches against each other. We play at a different
level when we're up against each other and I'm looking forward
to another big battle with him tomorrow."

Ashour meanwhile continued to set the court alight as, just 24
hours after completely outclassing Simon Rösner, he proved too
strong and too clinical for 2017 tournament winner Gregory
Gaultier - the man who held the World No.1 spot for nine
consecutive months before ElShorbagy remounted the summit on
April 1st.
Since halting Raphael Kandra in style in round one Ashour has
shown an irresistible fluidity on court and nonchalantly knocked
the ball into all four corners to place Gaultier under an
immense amount of pressure and complete and 11-6, 11-8, 11-8 win
in 45-minutes.

"We've played so many battles together - he's an amazing
athlete and its impressive how he covers the four corners of the
court," said Ashour.
"He looked a little off in his movement today but I knew I had
to be so on form to not give him an inch as he would have taken
the game. When he's playing normal you know what to expect but
today, because he wasn't at his best, it was even harder because
you don't know what to expect from him.

"Of course I'm happy with how it has been going this week. You
just try to give your best out there every time you play but no
doubt tomorrow's match will be another tough one."

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