Mohamed Al Shorbagy of Egypt (left) in action against Nick Matthew of England during the Qatar Classic squash championship in Doha yesterday.Pic by : Abdul Basit/The Peninsula
The final of the 2016 Qatar Classic squash tournament will be an all-Egyptian affair between top seed and defending champion Mohamed Elshorbagy and recently crowned world champion Karim Abdel Gawad.
In the first semi-final the world no. 1 mounted an astonishing comeback to deny Nick Matthew of England a place in the final while securing a passage for the fifth time in a row in Qatar.
Matthew won the Qatar Classic in 2009 and El Shorbagy the last two editions.
El Shorbagy also featured in the two World Championships finals held in Qatar.
The Englishman seemed to be in calm control in the first half of the match, with El Shorbagy unable to impose the pace he likes. Matthew led most of the first, took the second with a run of four points at the end, and led 8-5 and 9-7 in the third.
The Egyptian took four points in a row to take a game back, dominated the fourth then pulled away from 6-all in the decider to lead 9-6 and 10-8. Matthew saved one match ball, but on the next a video decision gave a stroke to El Shorbagy and the crowd went wild.
El Shorbagy won the semi-final in 83 minutes 8-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-9.
With yesterday’s win El Shorbagy extended the head-to-head record against Matthew to 12-8, and has now won seven of the last eight.
In the second semi-final, Gawad recovered from his customary slow start as surprise semi-finalist Daryl Selby of England led through most of the first game, eventually taking it 16-14.
The World Champion found his stride and dominated the next three games to reach a third successive major final and his first in Qatar.
Gawad won 3-1 (14-16, 11-6, 11-2, 11-5) in 50 minutes.
Selby started off on a promising note taking the first game but the Egyptian came back to win the next three and book a place in the final.
Qatar Classic is the third stage on the 2016/17 PSA Road to Dubai.
Only the top eight players on the PSA Road to Dubai Standings will qualify for June’s Dubai World Series Finals, and it is currently El Shorbagy who leads the way with 115 points after his success in Philadelphia at the US Open last month. The Egyptian powerhouse, who also topped last years standings, began the season in inauspicious style with a surprise quarter-final exit to Australian No.1 Cameron Pilley in the Hong Kong Open – the first stage on the PSA Road to Dubai – but bounced back to defeat Matthew in the final of the US Open to surge to the summit.
