Former champions Mohamed El Shorbagy and Gregory Gaultier registered contrasting wins to set up a semi-finals showdown at the Qatar Classic squash at Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex yesterday.
German star Simon Rosner also marched into a World Series semi-final for the first time in his 14-year career defeating sixth seed Marwan El Shorbagy of Egypt 3-1. Rosner will take on Egypt’s Tarek Momen, who defeated three-time world champion Nick Matthew 3-1 in the last quarter-final of the day, in the semi-finals today.
In the first quarter final yesterday, the elder El Shorbagy, who is aiming for his third title in Doha, was stretched to the limit by his compatriot Ali Farag. But El Shorbagy weathered a late fightback from Farag to reach the last four. Farag moved into top four for the first time in his career in the PSA World Rankings yesterday.
The two Egyptians were meeting for the third tournament in succession and had shared the spoils in their last two meetings, with Farag overcoming El Shorbagy in last month’s US Open final, while El Shorbagy avenged that defeat with victory in the Channel VAS Championships a week later.
El Shorbagy, a two-time winner and last year’s runner-up, looked set to continue where he left off after his win over the 25-year-old Harvard-graduate in Weybridge as he went two games up against a seemingly-fatigued Farag, who was passive and failed to match the attacking intensity of the older Egyptian.
But Farag upped his game in the third and fourth games as he finally began to look like the player that had lit up the Tour in the early months this season. He edged out the third to halve the deficit before drawing level after prevailing 18-16 in an epic fourth game which saw him surrender game balls on six occasions, before finally converting on his seventh after overturning three of El Shorbagy’s match balls.
A promising start from Farag saw him notch early points in the decider but errors soon began to flow as exhaustion kicked in and El Shorbagy put away the third of the four match balls to book his semi-final berth.
“I told him after the match that I am going to make him train harder than he has ever imagined,” said El Shorbagy.
“He is making me train harder than I thought I would, he’s making me push that extra mile every time. We’re going to push each other for the rest of our careers, we always play such great matches together and it was a fair, tough battle.
“It was 50-50 and I’m happy I got the win in the end. I’m not going to be able to beat him every time, he’s going to beat me a few times.
“Every time I lose to him, I learn something and I will try not to repeat those mistakes and he will do the same thing. That’s how we push each other, that’s how we improve each other.”
Later, in the second quarter-final, Gaultier was at his commanding best in dismissing Peruvian qualifier Diego Elias 3-0.
The 34-year-old Frenchman dominated the opening stages as he dropped just two points to go one game up after putting together some perfectly constructed rallies and very few errors. Elias, whose rapid rise up the rankings in recent months saw him targeting a place in his maiden World Series semi-final, found his feet in the second game as he managed to open up the court more and he played some good defensive squash to halt Gaultier’s flow slightly, but the experienced Frenchman was too strong and he held his nerve to double his lead.
Elias was then forced to take an injury break after just two points in the third game with a thigh problem and that robbed the 20-year-old of any efficient movement when he returned to court, leaving Gaultier to close out an 11-2, 11-7, 11-5 victory in 44 minutes.

QUARTER-FINALS RESULTS
*[3] Mohamed El Shorbagy (EGY) bt [5] Ali Farag (EGY) 3-2 (11-7, 11-4, 9-11, 16-18, 11-8) (93m)
*[1] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) bt [Q] Diego Elias (PER) 3-0 (11-2, 11-7, 11-5) (44m)
*Simon Rosner (GER) bt [6] Marwan El Shorbagy (EGY) 3-1 (11-7, 9-11, 11-5, 11-3 (53m)
*[8] Tarek Momen (EGY) bt [4] Nick Matthew (ENG) 3-1 (11-5, 11-9, 11-7, 11-6) (43m)
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
Semi-finals

* [1] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) vs [3] Mohamed El Shorbagy (EGY) 5.30pm
* [8] Tarek Momen (EGY) vs Simon Rosner (GER)




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