Egyptians Excel In Second Round In Saudi

It was a good day for Egyptians on the first day of second round action in the Saudi International after Amr Shabana, Karim Darwish and Ramy Ashour - the top three players in the Dunlop PSA World Rankings - moved into the quarter-finals of the $250,000 PSA Tour Super Series Platinum championship in the Saudi city of Al-Khobar.

World number two Karim Darwish was in excellent form as he despatched 'giant-killer' Alister Walker, the English qualifier who had reached the last sixteen after ousting 14th seed Adrian Grant in the first round. The 27-year-old from Cairo's 11-4, 11-4, 11-7 win over Walker takes Darwish into a quarter-final against compatriot Shabana.

"I felt pretty comfortable there today, but I knew I had to be focused right from the start," Darwish told the official website www.atcosquash.com . "Ali's made great progress in the last year and if you let him in he's very dangerous."

Two times defending champion and world number one Shabana met unseeded Borja Golan, the in-form Spaniard. Though the 25-year-old from Santiago pushed Shabana close, the top-seeded Egyptian won 11-9, 11-6, 2-11, 11-8 to go through to set up an all-Egyptian quarter-final.

"For him it was a bit up and down, I tried to be steady and concentrate all the match - but at this level that's very difficult," said Golan. "But I enjoy every moment on court with him, it can only help me improve my game. I'm very proud to play him, it's always such a good, fair game with him."

Last year's runner-up Ramy Ashour, now the World Open champion, faced top Malaysian Ong Beng Hee. The pair provided great entertainment for the crowd in a fast, attacking match - but fourth seed Ashour had too much firepower and beat the No10 seed 14-12, 11-8, 11-8.

The remaining quarter-final place settled on the first day of second round action in the world's richest squash tournament was secured by Nick Matthew. But the eighth seed was taken the full distance before beating fellow Englishman Peter Barker, the 12th seed, 11-7, 11-9, 8-11, 11-13, 15-13 in 79 minutes.

"To be honest I feel like I lost that at the moment - at 2/0 up I thought I had it won, then missed those match balls," rued Matthew after beating the opponent currently ranked one place higher in the world.

"All credit to him for coming back - I played really well for two games and felt in complete control. Then he came out attacking in the third and completely changed the game.

"We're good mates, it's a shame that someone has to lose a match like that, but in this tournament a couple of points makes a lot of difference in prize money, so I'll take it," concluded the 28-year-old from Sheffield.

2nd round (top half of draw):
[1] Amr Shabana (EGY) bt Borja Golan (ESP) 11-9, 11-6, 2-11, 11-8 (49m)
[7] Karim Darwish (EGY) bt [Q] Alister Walker (ENG) 11-4, 11-4, 11-7 (35m)
[4] Ramy Ashour (EGY) bt [10] Ong Beng Hee (MAS) 14-12, 11-8, 11-8 (35m)
[8] Nick Matthew (ENG) bt [12] Peter Barker (ENG) 11-7, 11-9, 8-11, 11-13, 15-13 (79m)