Egyptian couple Nour El Tayeb and Ali Farag both advanced into the
semi-finals of the 2018 J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions after
claiming huge wins over World Champion Raneem El Welily and three-time
winner Ramy Ashour on day six of the PSA World Series
tournament taking place under the chandeliers of Grand Central
Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall in New York.
El Tayeb and Farag made history in October’s U.S. Open as they
became the first married couple in sporting history ever to win the same
major sports title on the same day and they both remain on course to
challenge for honours in New York.
World No.7 El Tayeb, who beat El Welily in the U.S. Open title
decider, went a game down to the reigning World Champion but battled
back in a high-quality 43-minute affair, which she took in a 6-11, 11-9,
11-9, 11-8 scoreline.
"If someone would have told me that we [El Tayeb and Farag] would
both come out as winners, I wouldn’t have believed it," El Tayeb said.
"Raneem is not just the maverick of squash, she’s one of my idols. I
learn a lot from here on and off the court, she’s the most graceful,
most talented Egyptian female squash player.
"I got so nervous in Ali’s match, it took me a while to get this
match going and against someone like Raneem, I can’t afford to start
late. I saw how Ali studied his game and was preparing for the match and
I tried to do that like him. I hope he’s happy
with my performance today and hopefully we can keep it up tomorrow."
Farag, meanwhile, ended Ashour’s 12-match unbeaten run at Grand
Central Terminal to reach the semi-finals of this tournament for the
first time in his career, inflicting a first Tournament of Champions
defeat upon Ashour since 2010.
The duo last met in the final of the China Open in August, when it
was Ashour who came out on top in a thrilling five-game encounter that
saw the pair put on a free-flowing squash masterclass. But this time
around it was Farag who triumphed 11-7, 12-10,
7-11, 11-5 in a scrappy match that failed to live up to the huge
expectation surrounding it.
“Describing Ramy as tricky is an understatement,” said Farag.
“On his day he's the best player on Tour and everyone knows that.
“I just tried to forgot about who I was playing. At times, I look
at him as the squash God and because of that I sometimes forget to play
my own game, so today the most important thing was to focus on my own
game plan that was devised by my team and I
think it went well."
Farag will line up against countryman Tarek Momen in the last four
after the World No.7 halted the giant-killing run of Australia’s Ryan
Cuskelly.
Cuskelly caused one of the shocks of the tournament when he ended
World Champion Mohamed ElShorbagy’s 21-match unbeaten run in the
previous round, but it was a different story against Momen as he
struggled to find the impeccable length he was hitting against
the World No.2 in round two, while Momen hit an incredible 23 winners
en route to a 3-0 victory.
"I’m very glad to get through tonight
in three games because it was the last session and you don’t get enough
recovery from now on," said Momen, the husband of El Welily.
"I’m very happy with the way I played. Ryan is a very dangerous
player, he took out the number two seed and the World Champion, it was
an impressive win and I knew I had to have all my horses ready."
The other men’s semi-final will see French World No.1 Gregory
Gaultier and Germany’s Simon Rösner go head-to-head after yesterday’s
wins over England’s Nick Matthew and Switzerland’s Nicolas Mueller,
respectively, while Gaultier’s compatriot - Camille
Serme - moved into the last four of the women’s event with a 3-1 win
over 2014 winner Nicol David.
Serme, who recovered from 2-1 down to beat Australia’s Donna
Urquhart in the previous round, had never beaten David in 16 attempts
until a momentous victory over the eight-time World Champion during
November’s Hong Kong Open.
David had the better of the early stages as the Malaysian opened up
a one-game lead, but Serme fought back, edging a tie-break to take the
second before winning a further two games without reply to seal a 2-11,
12-10, 11-8, 11-5 triumph in 50 minutes that
will see her take on El Tayeb for a place in the final.
“Nicol was so strong in the first game, I wasn’t ready,” said Serme.
“The match from yesterday was still in my legs and in my head as
well. It was such a big fight today, mentally I had to push very far and
I’m just happy I came back."
The other women’s semi-final fixture will see World No.1 Nour El
Sherbini and last year’s runner-up Laura Massaro lock horns after
respective wins over World No.8 Sarah-Jane Perry and World No.5 Nouran
Gohar.
Semi-final action begins tomorrow from 17:00
local time (GMT-5) and will be shown live on SQUASHTV (Rest of World),
Eurosport Player (Europe only) and mainstream broadcasters around the
world, including BT Sport, beIN Sports, Fox Sports Australia and Astro.
Results – Quarter-Finals (Bottom Half): 2018 Men’s J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions
[3] Ali Farag (EGY) bt Ramy Ashour (EGY) 3-1: 11-7, 12-10, 7-11, 11-5 (67m)
[7] Tarek Momen (EGY) bt Ryan Cuskelly (AUS) 3-0: 11-9, 11-7, 11-7 (39m)
Draw - Men’s Semi-Finals: To Be Played January 24th
[1] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) v Simon Rösner (GER)
[3] Ali Farag (EGY) v [7] Tarek Momen (EGY)
Results - Quarter-Finals: 2018 Women’s J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions
[1] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) bt [7] Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG) 3-0: 11-7, 11-7, 11-5 (33m)
[4] Laura Massaro (ENG) bt [5] Nouran Gohar (EGY) 3-0: 11-6, 11-8, 11-8 (39m)
[3] Camille Serme (FRA) bt [6] Nicol David (MAS) 3-1: 2-11, 12-10, 11-8, 11-5 (50m)
[8] Nour El Tayeb (EGY) bt [2] Raneem El Welily (EGY) 3-1: 6-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-8 (43m)
Draw - Women’s Semi-Finals: To Be Played January 24th
[1] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) v [4] Laura Massaro (ENG)
[3] Camille Serme (FRA) v [8] Nour El Tayeb (EGY)
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