Top seed Ramy Ashour stormed
through to the last four of the Davenport North American Open
but surprise quarter-finalist Simon Rösner made him work
hard to get there.
The
tall German matched Ashour's genius for long spells of the match
and fought back superbly in the third to stop the Egyptian
winning in straight games, hitting three superb winners at the
front before trapping his opponent in the back right corner.
Ashour took a huge tumble but
returned to the court to continue. The crowd gasped in
admiration at the quality of the squash and the stupendous
retrieving.
Ashour now faces James Willstrop in
the semi-finals after the Englishman enjoyed a rest day
following the withdrawal of Karim Darwish through injury.
Ashour said:
"The
fall was a heavy but apart from a grazed elbow I'm feeling
fine."
"That was a
great game and there are lots of guys around who are capable
of playing top-quality squash. Simon is obviously one of
them.
"James is a
great player and I'm looking forward to another great battle.
We always enjoy putting on a great show for this wonderful
crowd in Richmond.
Gaultier shakes off Shabana
Gregory Gaultier was too tight, too accurate and too
consistent for Amr Shabana.
As the tournament moved into the quarter-final stages, so
Gaultier moved up to a new level of quality.
Striking the ball cleanly and matching Shabana for inventiveness
at the front of the court, he booked his place in the
semi-finals in just 34 minutes. It was to one-sided to be a
classic, but Gaultier was generous in his praise of his opponent.
He said:
"Amr is
without doubt the best squash player in the world.
"He is the
one you always look to if you are having some difficult
moments, because watching him helps you to get things right
in your own mind.
"I will always watch him on Squash TV.
He is the player you should watch if want to learn how to
hit the ball correctly.
"I am happy with how I played and pleased to be playing
better now I am in the semi-finals."
Nick
Matthew offered his apologies to England team-mate Peter Barker
after a flurry of mis-hits helped him to reach the semi-finals.
Number two seed Matthew was being unnecessarily polite, because
his all-round game had been solid.
Both players showed excellent court coverage, producing some
astonishing retrievals, and at the front of the court they
showed that Egypt does not have a monopoly on hitting nicks.
Barker matched his opponent in the early stages of each game,
but it was Matthew who finished strongly on each occasion.
In
the first game, Matthew won four points in a row from 4-4 to
provide him with a winning cushion.
Barker led 6-4 in the second game but another spell of concerted
pressure delivered six consecutive points to the Yorkshireman.
Matthew built a 6-1 lead in the third , but although Barker
fought back to 6-5, he was not to win another point.
A
sporting Matthew said: "I was amazed at the number of
winning mis-hits I hit in that third game so I ought to
apologise to Peter for that.
"It was a really tough game. Peter has been out with an
injury and I think that was the probably the main reason I
was able to push through from something like 6-6 in each
game.
"Obviously he hasn't had the court time you need to build up
your levels of fitness but he played very well and will only
get better in the coming weeks and months."
