Nick Matthew
AFP/Canberra
England’s Nick Matthew remained on track to defend his Australian Open squash title with an impressive win over Malaysia’s Ong Beng Hee in Canberra on Wednesday.
World number one Matthew absorbed everything the Malaysian threw at him to close out the match 11-7, 11-8, 11-9 and move into a quarter-final against Laurens Jan Anjema of the Netherlands.
Anjema reached the final eight when he beat American Julian Illingworth 11-4, 11-3, 11-3.
Matthew and Ong have been opponents since their junior days and the Malaysian used all his experience to try and undo his opponent, hitting an array of shots to all parts of the court.
However, Matthew was up to the challenge, despite struggling to close out the match in a tight third game.
“I seem to get to seven, eight and nine points okay before hitting a bit of a roadblock,” he said.
“But that’s a credit to Beng Hee, he stayed around to fight to the end. He changed his tactics every point so it was hard to feel comfortable.”
Matthew will need to be at his best against Anjema, who followed up his first round defeat of fifth seed Thierry Lincou with a dominant display against Illingworth.
Australian veteran David Palmer overcame an injured ankle to edge past Tom Richards of England 4-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-5.
Palmer hurt his ankle when he fell awkwardly during his first round win over Azlan Iskandar on Monday and needed extensive treatment just to take the court.
The 35-year-old struggled badly during the first game and looked headed for an early exit in possibly his last ever Australian Open.
However, as the match wore on he slowly started to gain more movement and began to dominate an increasingly frustrated Richards.