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05-Dec, Semi-Finals:
[3] Laura Massaro (Eng) 3-0 [1] Raneem El Welily (Egy)
11-4, 11-5, 11-8 (33m)
[2] Nicol David (Mas) 3-0 [5] Omneya Abdel Kawy (Egy)
11-4, 11-5, 11-2 (24m)
[1] Mohamed Elshorbagy (Egy) 3-0 [6] Omar Mosaad (Egy)
11-4, 11-6, 11-9 (39m)
Cameron Pilley (Aus) 3-0 [2] Nick Matthew (Eng)
11-9, 13-11, 12-10 (59m)
Significant moments for four Hong Kong
finalists
The semi-finals of the Hong
Kong Open, on the Glass Court at Hong Kong Sports Centre, all
finished within three games and three of them in considerably
under an hour.
 Top
seeds and defending champions Mohamed Elshorbagy and
Nicol David both moved into another final with some ease,
Elshorbagy beating fellow Egyptian Omar Mosaad 11-4, 11-6, 11-9
while David motored past Omneya Abdel Kawy 11-4, 11-5, 11-2.
Both victories brought up
significant career moments - in the case of Elshorbagy it means
he will return to world #1 in January, while David's 11th Hong
Kong final in a row will be her 100th tour final.
 "Hong
Kong has great memories for me," said Elshorbagy," it's winning
here last year that took me to number one. It was great to play
my good friend Omar here, I think he was suffering from his
previous matches but we'll have some great battles in the
future.
"I came here to do two jobs; reclaim the World No.1 spot and
retain the title. One down and hopefully I will do the other
tomorrow."
David was equally pleased:
 "I
was very happy with how I played today," she said, "Omneya is
always dangerous so I had to be onto it from the start and I
kept my focus until the end.
Both face unexpected
opposition in their bids to retain the title - England's
Laura Massaro beat top seed Raneem El Welily 11-4, 11-5,
11-8 with the current world #1 only seriously threatening
towards the end of the third.
 The
significance of the win for Massaro is not only that she reaches
a third consecutive World Series final having won in
Philadelphia and Doha, but it also means she will become world
#1 for the first time in January.
"I knew how important it was to get off to a strong start and
that’s exactly what I did, said Massaro.
"It's a great win to beat Raneem in three games, and if the
maths are correct getting to number one is a huge bonus, but I
still have a final to play tomorrow."
 Husband
Danny knew the significance: "You've only gone and done it!"
he said as Laura came off court.
Unseeded Australian Cameron Pilley
will be appearing in his first World Series final after he beat
second seed Nick Matthew 11-9, 13-11, 12-10 in the final match.
 Pilley
finished better in a nip and tuck opening game, came from 5-10
down to take the second, and then saw leads of 5-1 and 10-7
disappear in the third before closing out the win.
Three major upsets in three days for the Australian also means
that his golf round has to be cancelled yet again!
 "We've
played each other a lot and I haven't won many," admitted
Pilley, "but it's often close in the games and I guess I just
played a little bit better at the end of them today.
"In a few weeks when I look back on it I’m sure it will be great
achievement but at the moment I’m not getting ahead of myself -
there’s another match to go and my focus is on that." |
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