Darwish & Gaultier On Course For Cairo Showdown

Former world number ones Karim Darwish and Gregory Gaultier remain on course to meet in the final of the Rotary Heliopolis Open after straight games' wins in the quarter-finals of the $42,500 PSA World Tour squash event at Heliopolis Sporting Club in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

Darwish, the top seed from Cairo looking to win the long-established title for the first time, defeated top-ranked German Simon Rosner, the No7 seed, 11-4, 11-8, 11-6.

The world number four, who topped the rankings for all but one month of last year, now faces Cairo compatriot Omar Mosaad.

The 22-year-old ended Nicolas Mueller's run, beating the unseeded Swiss star 11-5, 7-11, 11-5, 11-4.

Gregory Gaultier will be hoping to deny the crowd an all-Cairo final when he takes on fourth seed Hisham Mohd Ashour in the other semi-final. The 27-year-old Frenchman beat fifth-seeded Egyptian Mohd Ali Anwar Reda 11-6, 11-5, 12-10.

Ashour faced sixth seed Tom Richards - and had to recover from a game down before defeating the Englishman 7-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-7.

Semi-final line-up:
[1] Karim Darwish (EGY) v [3] Omar Mosaad (EGY)
[2] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) v [4] Hisham Mohd Ashour (EGY)