Darwish & Willstrop Home In On Qatar Final

Karim Darwish and James Willstrop, now the highest two seeds left in the Qatar Classic draw, edged closer towards the final of the sixth PSA World Series squash event of the year in the Qatar capital Doha after four-game quarter-final victories today at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex.

Willstrop, the fourth seed from England, faced fellow countryman Peter Barker in a repeat of their meeting at the same stage of the US Open just over a week ago. And, as it was then, Willstrop had to recover from a game down to beat his England team-mate.

The match looked as though it was heading for a decider as Barker led throughout the fourth, but his frustration grew as Willstrop pegged back the lead, saved two game balls, and took the match after a tie-break 6-11, 11-7, 11-4, 13-11 in 56 minutes.

"Peter played a really good game for that court, he surprised me," Willstrop told www.squashsite.co.uk later. "I didn't expect that game from him, taking the ball that early, going that short. He is really adding to his game all the time.

"Today, I had to dig in deep to turn it around."

The first match promised another upset when unseeded Swiss star Nicolas Mueller raced into an 11-2 and 4-1 lead over Darwish, the third-seeded defending champion.

The Egyptian settled, and dominated from that point on to win 2-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-4 in 35 minutes.

"The first game is the best game I ever played in my life, up to 4-1 in the second," exclaimed Mueller afterwards. "I was very sharp and taking the ball very early, and that surprised him a bit maybe."

Darwish, bidding to become the first three-time winner of the title, was full of praise of his young opponent - who upset Egyptian former champion Amr Shabana and top-ranked Malaysian Mohd Azlan Iskandar to reach the last eight:

"Overall, he played superb squash - and if he goes on like that, he'll go to the top," said world No3 Darwish of Mueller.

There was to be no further upset for Egypt's Tarek Momen, who after his explosive dismissal of top seed Nick Matthew in the previous round, found sixth seed Gregory Gaultier a step too far.

Not that the Frenchman had it at all easy. Despite winning in straight games 11-5, 11-8, 11-7, Gaultier was kept on court for over an hour - and the young Egyptian had his chances in each of the last two games.

An upset of sorts finally arrived in the last match of the day as Stewart Boswell got the better of fellow Australian Cameron Pilley in four games 11-8, 11-5, 4-11, 11-4. Both Aussies were unseeded, but on the night it was Boswell - the victor over higher-ranked compatriot David Palmer in the previous round - who won through.

Semi-final line-up:
[6] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) v [3] Karim Darwish (EGY)
Stewart Boswell (AUS) v [4] James Willstrop (ENG)

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