In a Pittsburgh Open quarter-final that included five tie-breaks, England’s Marwan ElShorbagy came back from the brink as he defeated World No.35 Sebastien Bonmalais after the Frenchman squandered match balls in the third and fourth game.
Their last encounter was in Singapore and saw Bonmalais retire early after suffering a thigh injury in the fourth game.
The two players were inseparable as they began their match in Pittsburgh, staying within two points of each other for the whole first game. Both players were hitting a good length, but the hot ball made it difficult to play for winners at the front of the court.
Bonmalais earned the first chance to win game one at 10-9, but hit the tin on a drop attempt at the front of the court to push the match to its first of many tie-breaks.
It was another error from the Frenchman, hitting the tin from further back on the court this time, that gave the Englishman his chance at a lead in the match. After a no-let decision against ElShorbagy, two cross-courts from Bonmalais, the first of which buried itself deep into the corner, and the other that sped past the out-stretched racket of ElShorbagy, gave the No.6 seed the lead in the match.
The two players remained level again in the second game up to 10-10, but Bonmalais earned a second game ball by forcing his opponent to the right of the court before hitting a snap-shot in the other direction, and the Frenchman sealed his two-game advantage with a stroke as ElShorbagy blocked the line for Bonmalais after a counter-drop.
Again the pair exchanged points evenly at the start of the third game, but this time the match was on line after Bonmalais caught his opposition out with a thin cross-court to go 10-9 up.
The 26-year-old couldn’t get out the way of his own straight drive as a stroke brought the game back to parity, then a well-placed boast from the Englishman and a well-timed straight drive from the Frenchman brought the score to 11-11.
The No.2 seed got the better of a counter-drop battle in the front-left corner, then secured his first game of the match after forcing Bonmalais into a mistake.
Again ElShorbagy and Bonmalais were evenly matched, but the Englishman pulled away at the end as he gave himself three game balls. The Frenchman forced the match’s fourth tie-break with a beautiful drop into the nick after ElShorbagy hit the tin twice in a row.
The No.6 seed set up his second match ball of the day, however an immaculately accurate kill shot from ElShorbagy off of Bonmalais’ serve levelled the game, and two errors from the Frenchman forced the thrilling affair to a fifth game after 65 minutes.
ElShorbagy earned his first match ball of the encounter at 10-7, but the 30-year-old hit the tin three successive times to drag the match to yet another tie-break.
The fatigued Frenchman guessed the wrong way as ElShorbagy’s cross-court earned his second match ball, and the match was won by a soft shot into the centre of the front-court that Bonmalais, despite a desperate yet spectacular dive, couldn’t reach, calling an end to the 79-minute thriller.
“It was tough coming back from two games down, especially as I lost two tie-breaks in the first two games and I felt like I was in control, but he kept coming back,” said ElShorbagy after the encounter, “Every shot I played he kept coming back so I had be patient and calm.
“I knew I was doing the right thing, sometimes I was impatient, sometimes I was losing my focus a little bit, but overall I’m happy to come back. It wasn’t easy out there.
“I was telling myself to be patient, I didn’t feel like I was doing the wrong thing, I just needed to keep doing it for as long as I could. It was tough because sometimes I got the opportunity to go for a winner, but then I would think about it too much because I knew it had to be inch-perfect.
No.1 seed Karim Abdel Gawad continued his Pittsburgh Open campaign with a strong performance over England’s Adrian Waller.
The World No.6 always felt in control of the encounter, despite Waller staying close on points. Gawad won his first game at the first time of asking after an unforced error from the 34-year-old.
The former World No.1 found himself at 10-9 again in the second game, and swiftly converted the opportunity with a shot towards the on-rushing Waller that the Englishman couldn’t react to quickly enough.
The No.2 seed finished his quarter-final clash in style with a quick cross-court at 10-8 to win the match and set up a semi-final clash with compatriot Youssef Ibrahim.
Speaking after the match, Gawad said, “Adrian Waller is a great player. Playing against him is always hard, and I tried as much as possible to put pressure on most of the points and rallies but it was hard because he also has very good ball control and movement on court. It was hard to put the pressure on him, but I tried my best today.”
In the first match of the day, Ibrahim earned a place in his first semi-final of the season with a convincing win over India’s Velavan Senthilkumar. The Indian found his spot in the quarter-finals after a second round upset over No.8 seed Faraz Khan, but struggled in the early stages of his last-eight match as the in-form Egyptian played fast, aggressive squash.
Ibrahim kept a lot of the early rallies on his back-hand and stretched the 25-year-old with cross-courts, earning himself a healthy 10-2 lead, taking the first game with the tightest of squeezes along the left wall.
Senthilkumar looked stronger in the second and third games, but Ibrahim always looked a step ahead as he surged to the semi-final with a comfortable 3-0 win.
“I’m very happy, a 3-0 win is always good. I haven’t been used to winning 3-0 for a while so it feels good. Velavan is such a good player. We’ve played so many times and he’s always given me a hard time on court so to win like that and be so mentally consistent throughout the games is a really positive thing for me and I’m just glad I held it together and did well.
In the final match of the day, No.3 seed Youssef Soliman defeated Switzerland’s Yannick Wilhelmi, who earned his place in the quarter-finals with a dramatic comeback win over Mexico’s Cesar Salazar.
The World No.12 looked in form in the early stages, covering the court well and quickly, amounting a 10-5 advantage. The Egyptian won the first game by forcing an error from the Swiss player with a tight squeeze on the left wall.
Soliman continued his dominance in the second game and quickly found himself with six game balls. The Egyptian took the game with his first chance as his shot sailed past the out-of-position Wilhelmi.
The Egyptian carried his momentum into the third game as he quickly earned his first match ball. Wilhelmi clung on, finding the nick at 10-6, then producing a pin-point accurate drop at 10-7 before hitting the tin attempting another drop to concede the match to the World No.12.
After the match, Soliman said, “I just had to be solid. It’s tricky to play someone when you have no idea what to expect from them. I had the same thing with Simon [Herbert] yesterday and it was the same with Yannick. You don’t know what to expect, you have to be solid from the beginning and that’s pretty much what I did.”
The semi-finals of the Pittsburgh Open commence at 13:00 (GMT-5) on Saturday, 10th February, with action from court two live on SQUASHTV.
Results: Pittsburgh Open Quarter-Finals
[4] Youssef Ibrahim (EGY) bt Velavan Senthilkumar (IND) 3-0: 11-2, 11-4, 11-8 (30m)
[1] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) bt [5] Adrian Waller (ENG) 3-0: 11-9, 11-9, 11-8 (31m)
[2] Marwan ElShorbagy (ENG) bt [6] Sebastien Bonmalais (FRA) 3-2: 11-13, 10-12, 13-11, 13-11, 12-10 (79m)
[3] Youssef Soliman (EGY) bt Yannick Wilhelmi (SUI) 3-0: 11-5, 11-4, 11-8 (36m)
Draw: Pittsburgh Open Semi-Finals
13:00 [1] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) v [4] Youssef Ibrahim (EGY)
13:45 [3] Youssef Soliman (EGY) v [2] Marwan ElShorbagy (ENG)
