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TODAY: 13-Jun, Day SIX
Semi-Finals:
Playing order 1,2,3
playoff results
on the RESULTS page
[1] Egypt 2-1 [4]
Australia
Karim
Darwish 1-3 Cameron Pilley 10/12, 16/14, 10/12, 9/11
(74m)
report
Omar Mosaad 3-1 David Palmer 11/13,
11/6, 11/9, 11/9 (80m) report
Tarek Momen 3-2 Ryan Cuskelly
3/11, 11/6, 11/5, 7/11, 11/5 (67m)
report
player quotes on the blog
[2]
England 2-0 [3] France
Nick Matthew
3-2 Grégory Gaultier 5/11, 11/9, 9/11, 11/5, 12/10
(132m)
James Willstrop 3-1 Thierry Lincou
11/2, 11/8, 7/11, 13/11 (76m)
Egypt squeeze into the final
Well, what a semi-final. After five days of the seeds sailing
through, we had a real match tonight as defending champions
Egypt squeezed into the final by the skin of their teeth, pushed
all the way by fourth seeds Australia.
Having played the two matches of his life in last month's
British Open, Cameron Pilley pulled out a third cracker as he
beat Karim Darwish for the first time, getting the better of
four very close games.
 David
Palmer threatened to roll back the years as he took the first
game against Omar Mosaad, but in a pretty physical encounter
Mosaad struck back to take the next three and keep Egypt in the
hunt.
Australia needed another performance of a lifetime from Ryan
Cuskelly, and he almost did it, taking Tarek Momen all the way
to a decider. But the Egyptian powered through the fifth, a 10/2
lead was always going to be enough, and, now two hours behind
schedule, Egypt were in the final.
England
deny French dream
 Matthew
jumps for joy
First up, in front of a passionate and very noise packed house
at the Palais des Sports, was Nick Matthew v Gregory Gaultier.
Long story short, they traded the first four games in fornt of
one of the noisiest and most passionate crowds ever seen, and we
were into a decider with the clock advancing towards midnight.
 Gaultier
took a 4-1 lead, Matthew came back to lead 5-4, but the
Frenchman edged ahead again, leading 8-6 and then 9-6.
Amid scenes of amazing drama, tension, and at times near farce -
at 7-9 Gaultier collapsed on the floor writhing in agony and
screaming in pain, only to jump up like a flash (dare we say
'like a footballer'?) when the referee declared that he had no
injury breaks remaining so declared "game and match".
 Matthew
was almost as unhappy when he was awarded a no let after a dive
and recovery, only to hear "the ball was bouncing twice", which
gave Gaultier three match balls.
 He
was clearly struggling though, and Matthew reeled off five
dramatic points in a row and literally leapt for joy, then leapt
again and again in front of the ecstatic England bench (with
Gaultier, to his credit, applauding behind him).
"Je suis desolé" were the first words of his post-match
interview, but it was the French, surely, who were truly
desol-ated.
Willstrop finishes off
the French dream
 Nothing
was likely to be able to match that for drama, and when James
Willstrop eased through the first against French veteran Thierry
Lincou and then doubled his lead with the Frenchman unable to
make a real impression, it looked all over.
But Lincou fought back, took the third and led 7-3 in the fourth
as the crowd began to sense that it might actually happen for
them after all. Willstrop dug in though, got to 10-9 match ball
but was denied by a stroke, earned another but tinned at the end
of a tough rally, and on his third chance, at just after 1.30am,
served into the nick to end the French dream.
player
quotes on the blog |
Clyne 3 Gordon 2
Kandra wins in for
Germany over India
Salazar takes a break
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