Fathi Foils Graham To Make Kent Open Semis

Young Egyptian Karim Ali Fathi is determined to upset the seedings after reaching the semi-finals of the SE Leisure Kent Open.

The 19-year-old from Cairo, who won the isquash Grand Prix title in Wales last week, outplayed English giant-killer Anthony Graham to become the only unseeded player to reach the last four of the PSA World Tour Challenger 10 event at The Mote Squash Club in Maidstone, England.

Graham, the 22-year-old from Gloucestershire who knocked out No3 seed Mark Krajcsak the previous day, was beaten by the accuracy of by Ali Fathi's winners at the front of the court.

In addition to some outstanding drop shots, the Egyptian teenager also unleashed some powerful straight kills that found the nick. His 12-10, 11-8, 11-9 victory came after 60 minutes of high-quality, inventive squash.

Fathi's semi-final opponent, No2 seed Henrik Mustonen, spent exactly half that time on court as he overwhelmed his French adversary Julien Balbo.

The world No52 from Finland is a smooth mover around the court and had all the answers when it came to retrieving Balbo's best shots and placing winners beyond his opponent's reach.

Top seed Chris Simpson beat Malaysian Elvinn Keo in four games and is looking forward to a tough battle with Denmark's Kristian Frost Olesen, who battled past another Frenchman, Lucas Serme, in a brutal 80-minute encounter.

Englishman Simpson let the first game slip after leading 10-6, but tightened up to win the next three.

"It was a tough match," said the Harrogate-based Channel Islander. "He was game ball down in the first and from then on he played some really good winners. After that I decided I had to make him work hard and put some work into his legs. And this worked for the next few games.

"I think there will be some long, hard matches this week as it's very hot and I'm looking forward to tomorrow's match," added world No43 Simpson.

Frost enjoyed a stroke of good fortune as he served for the match against Serme. Having reached match ball with a spectacular volley kill off the serve at 9-9, Frost served behind his opponent's back and the ball struck Serme's racket and spun to the floor.

Semi-final line-up:
[1] Chris Simpson (ENG) v [4] Kristian Frost Olesen (DEN)
[2] Henrik Mustonen (FIN) v Karim Ali Fathi (EGY)

Tournament website: www.motesquash.co.uk

For all the latest Tour news: www.psaworldtour.com

Photo by Kim Roberts