Egypt’s World No. 41 Youssef Ibrahim stunned compatriot and World No. 2 Mohamed ElShorbagy in a five-game thriller to reach the quarter-finals of the Qatar Classic at the Khalifa Tennis and Squash Complex yesterday.
ElShorbagy needed to win the event and hope that defending champion Ali Farag failed to reach the final in order to reclaim the place at the top of the World Rankings, but a shock defeat to 21-year-old Ibrahim in the third round means that Farag will keep his place as No.1 in December.
Ibrahim came out firing and barely put a foot wrong throughout the entire match as he caused problems for the experienced ElShorbagy, who will not feature in a quarter-final of an event he’s played for the first time in two years, with his incredible shot making.
The young Egyptian took a tight first game, before ElShorbagy took the next two and looked like he was back on track for a routine victory in the fourth. However, Ibrahim rallied back well, saving match ball from the ‘Beast of Alexandria’ before drawing level on his fifth game ball attempt.
Ibrahim did not let the nerves of the occasion affect him in the fifth either as he powered into the lead and never looked back, closing out 11-9, 6-11, 3-11, 15-13, 11-6 in 65 minutes to reach his maiden PSA Platinum quarter final where he will face compatriot Fares Dessouky.
“The word would be surreal,” said Ibrahim following the match.
“I don’t know how to describe how I’m feeling right now. I’ve been waiting for a break for a really long time and training really hard for so many years and I haven’t had a good win – this just makes it so much better.
“It’s a rollercoaster of emotions, to beat someone like Mohamed in his form and where he is now, top seed of the tournament – it’s just massive. I knew I was in for a fight, I had nothing to lose today. I put 100% into every shot in every game and I know he has a lot of experience, I had to be aware every game and when I took the lead, I usually squander the lead in so many matches, but against Mohamed I had to be on my toes the whole match.”
World No. 1 Ali Farag, however, continued his fine form towards his title defence with a 3-0 victory over Malaysia’s Eain Yow Ng.
Farag was in full flow today though as he keeps his eyes on the prize in Doha. The Egyptian found his targets well and forced Eain Yow to do a lot of heavy work, which took its toll on the 22-year-old Malaysian and Farag was able to see out the victory by an 11-5, 11-7, 11-7 margin.
He is proving himself to be a very solid opponent,” said Farag afterwards.
“He was getting everything back, I’ve never seen a Malaysian that doesn’t move well – what are they feeding them over there! Beng Hee first, then Ivan and Nafiizwan and Yow, they move so well and it’s so hard to put the ball away. 
“At the end I thought I would try to tire him out to see if it would pay off and it did. I couldn’t be more full of praise for him, he’s very talented but he also has the character to rise up the rankings and I’m really pleased to win in three today.”
Egypt’s World No.6 Marwan ElShorbagy took out Germany’s Raphael Kandra by an 11-4, 11-5, 11-7 scoreline to reach the quarter finals.
The two players have met four times previously on the PSA Tour with their last three encounters being tight battles. However, yesterday ElShorbagy saw out a comfortable victory in 34 minutes.
The Egyptian put work into the legs of World No.33 Kandra early on and was clinical and accurate with his hitting to take the first game, before an adductor injury to Kandra in the second saw the German struggle to make much headway in the remainder of the match as ElShorbagy booked his place in the quarter finals of the PSA Platinum event.
Egypt’s World No.12 Fares Dessouky also produced a dominant display to secure his place in the quarter finals after beating Spain’s former World No.5 Borja Golan 11-2, 12-10, 11-2.
Dessouky looked full of confidence following his victory over World No.8 Simon Rösner in the last round as he comfortably took the first game for the loss of two points after controlling the middle of the court and condemning Golan with his accurate hitting.
It looked as though the second game was going in the same manner with Dessouky building up a healthy 8-1 lead. However, the experienced Spaniard battled back to force his way into the match and level the scores at 9-9 before Dessouky snuck ahead and kept his composure to close out on the tie break.
A two-game deficit proved to be too much for Golan to come back from in the third as Dessouky cruised to the finish line with a mature performance leaving Golan unable to read the Egyptian’s game as he booked his place in the next round of the PSA Platinum event.