By Sports Reporter/Doha




Karim Abdel Gawad was stretched to the limit by Eain Yow Ng before the former champion overcame the valiant Malaysian 3-2 (9-11, 11-13, 11-3, 11-4, 11-4) to reach third round of the Qatar Classic yesterday.
At the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, the Egyptian needed more than one hour to finally break his opponent, ranked 42nd in the world rankings.
“It was a very tough round for me. I know I’m a slow starter but I did not start on a positive note,” Gawad said. 
Eain had beaten local favourite Abdulla al-Tamimi in the first round and picked up where he left off as he produced squash of the highest calibre in the opening games to leave Gawad, the World No 10 from Giza, searching for a way to stop the onslaught – which he duly found to turn the match upside down and keep alive his hopes of winning the title for the second time in his career.
“He is extremely gifted player. He played very well today. I knew how good he must have been although I never played him,” Gawad said. 
In the bottom quarter of the draw, last year’s runner-up and No 2 seed Tarek Momen was in scintillating form as he blitzed past Swiss Nicolas Mueller 11-4, 11-7, 11-7, setting up a match with 2005 Champion James Willstrop, who defeated Hong Kong’s Max Lee 3-1 (11-6, 4-11, 11-8, 11-9).
Welshman Joel Makin followed up his win over Mohamed ElShorbagy in the recent Channel VAS Championship with another massive upset, beating 5th seeded British Open Champion Miguel Rodriguez 3-2 (11-4, 6-11, 11-7, 10-12, 11-9) in a 106-minute marathon.
Makin will now line up against Frenchman Mathieu Castagnet for a place in the quarter-finals of the tournament, and the rising star says he is hungry to capitalise on the opportunity and go one step further than his round of sixteen finish at the US Open earlier this month.
“The first round match here was tough because all the players are good at this level but I felt like I got the win last week (over Shorbagy) out of my system in that match and I felt like I played much better today,” Makin said.
“I knew I had to be so patient with him because if you open the court up too quickly he has such quick reactions and can hurt you. Today was a big ranking win for me and one that could mean me going into the last eight, so I will do what I can to try and make that happen in a few days.”
Castagnet secured his third round spot with a 3-0 win over Australia’s Cameron Pilley.
India’s Saurav Ghosal dispatched his Asian Games nemesis Leo Au 11-2, 11-3, 11-5 to meet second seed Ali Farag in the next round. Ghosal lost a gruelling 76-minute long Asian Games semi-final to Leo after having a upper hand during most of the match.
“I don’t consume myself with thoughts of revenge or anything like that - the focus was on how I would play any top player, which Leo is. I was thinking about what I needed to do against him to impose my game and execute it,” Ghosal said.
 RESULTS
Declan James (Eng) 3-0 Karim Ali Fathi (Egy) 11-6, 11-9, 11-4 (35m)
[6] Karim Abdel Gawad (Egy) 3-2 Eain Yow Ng (Mas) 9-11, 11-13, 11-3, 11-4, 11-4 (61m)
Mathieu Castagnet (Fra) 3-0 Cameron Pilley (Aus) 16-14, 11-2, 11-8 (48m)
Joel Makin (Wal) 3-2 [5] Miguel Rodriguez (Col)  11-4, 6-11, 11-7, 10-12, 11-9 (106m)
James Willstrop (Eng) 3-1 Max Lee (Hkg) 11-6, 4-11, 11-8, 11-9 (48m)
[3] Tarek Momen (Egy) 3-0 Nicolas Mueller (Sui) 11-4, 11-7, 11-7 (27m)
Saurav Ghosal (Ind) 3-0 Leo Au (Hkg) 11-2, 11-3, 11-5 (29m)
[2] Ali Farag (Egy) 3-2 Mohamed Abouelghar (Egy)  10-12, 11-5, 11-6, 9-11, 11-9 (68m).