Creed Cracks Sharpes In Madison Upset

Unseeded Welshman Peter Creed produced the biggest upset on the second day of action in the Madison Open in the USA when he ousted England's No4 seed Charles Sharpes to reach the semi-finals of the PSA World Tour Challenger 10 squash event in its fourth year at Madison Squash Workshop in Madison, Wisconsin.

"First game was back and forth all the way to nine-all, until Peter broke free to take it 11-9," reported event promoter Damon Bourne. "Charles took six points in a row from five-all to take the second.

"Creed reasserted himself in the third and took it 11-5. The fourth was close and went to Charles. Pete was rolling in the fifth, but visibly tightened up at 9-5. He focused a bit, but finally won 11-9."

Creed, ranked five places below Sharpes, was not entirely happy with his game: "I didn't play as tightly as I wanted, but played well enough and was focused until 9-5 in the fifth," said the world No73 from Caerphilly after the pair's first Tour meeting.

"Then I started thinking about winning the match rather than what I was doing!"

Creed will now face another Englishman after Joel Hinds stopped Dane Sharp, the unseeded Canadian who removed top seed Shaun le Roux in the first round. Hinds, the world No87 from Birmingham, recovered from a game down to beat the higher-ranked Sharp 5-11, 14-12, 11-6, 13-11.

"I felt like I was hitting the ball really well, but tactically didn't get it right tonight," said Sharp later. "Needed to construct rallies more maturely. Joel played the big points well. Credit to him. He was tougher on the day."

The other semi will be the match predicted by the draw, between second seed Martin Knight and third-seeded Egyptian Karim Ali Fathi.

New Zealander Knight claimed the night's only straight games win, beating South African Clinton Leeuw 13-11, 12-10, 11-5.

"That first game was crucial in terms of momentum," said the 29-year-old world No53 from Auckland. "That I was finally able to win made a big difference. The third started the same as the first, but Clinton couldn't bring it back. Always happy to win in three. That was hard work."

Ali Fathi celebrated his first semi-final appearance in a US Tour event when he beat England's Ben Coleman 11-3, 3-11, 11-4, 11-7.

"I needed to be steady throughout," said the 20-year-old from Cairo afterwards. "I lost some of that in the second, but was able to get it back in the third and fourth.

"Now I'm getting ready for the old guy!"

Semi-final line-up:
Joel Hinds (ENG) v Peter Creed (WAL)
[2] Martin Knight (NZL) v [3] Karim Ali Fathi (EGY)