Mueller Stems Domestic Dominance In Heliopolis Open

There will be Egyptian interest in all four quarter-finals of the Rotary Heliopolis Open, but rising Swiss star Nicolas Mueller denied a guaranteed local semi-finalist when he beat eighth seed Omar Abdel Aziz in the only first round upset in the $42,500 PSA World Tour squash event at Heliopolis Sporting Club in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

The 20-year-old world No37 from Zurich came back from a game down to beat Abdel Aziz, ranked four places higher, 7-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-6.

Mueller will now line up against a further Cairo-based opponent when he faces Omar Mosaad, the third seed, for a place in the last four.

Cairo's world No4 Karim Darwish is the event's top seed. The 28-year-old former world number one is hoping to see his name listed alongside illustrious former winners of the prestigious title, including Jansher Khan, Peter Nicol and compatriots Ahmed Barada and Amr Shabana.

Darwish cruised to an 11-7, 11-4, 11-3 win over Cairo-based Italian Amr Swelim and will now meet Germany's Simon Rosner in the last eight.

It will be Frenchman Gregory Gaultier who is expected to meet Darwish in the final. The No2 seed, ranked six in the world, also overcame his first round opponent in straight games, beating Englishman Chris Ryder 11-9, 11-6, 11-6.

Quarter-final line-up:
[1] Karim Darwish (EGY) v [7] Simon Rosner (GER)
[3] Omar Mosaad (EGY) v Nicolas Mueller (SUI)
[4] Hisham Mohd Ashour (EGY) v [6] Tom Richards (ENG)
[2] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) v [5] Mohd Ali Anwar Reda (EGY)