Mighty Momen Defeats Darwish In Windy City

Unseeded Egyptian Tarek Momen pulled off the upset of the tournament so far when he defeated compatriot Karim Darwish, the No6 seed and former world No1, on the second day of first round action in the 2014 METROsquash Windy City Open, the second PSA World Series squash event of the year at the University Club of Chicago in Chicago, USA.

Momen, the world No12 who is competing in Chicago for the first time, twice came from behind to eventually prevail 6-11, 11-3, 9-11, 11-8, 11-7 in a tough and tense 67-minute battle and record his first ever career victory over world No8 Darwish.

Momen will now face Indian No1 Saurav Ghosal in the second round after the Kolkata-based world No18 beat Welsh wild card Peter Creed in straight games.

"That was definitely one of the biggest wins of my career," said Momen.

"I have never beaten Karim before in my career so it's a very special day for me today and I think I played really well. I had some concentration lapses which he took full advantage of and he made it hard for me, but I'm very pleased with how I kept mentally strong.

"There are so many positives for me to take from the match.

"I train with Karim a lot in Egypt and there has always been a mental barrier there. He's a top player and I used to look up to him a lot and it's hard when you are getting closer and it's mentally very tough to break through so I'm happy that I managed to break those shackles today."

Spanish No1 and world No6 Borja Golan survived a tough and testing clash with Colombian Miguel Angel Rodriguez in his first round match, coming through a feisty 86-minute encounter 11-5, 13-11, 11-13, 11-6 to set up an all-European second round meeting with top-ranked German Simon Rosner, the country's eight-time national champion.

"The first match of a tournament is always difficult for both players and today was no exception," said Golan, Spain's highest-ranked player of all-time.

"It wasn't the best quality match that we have ever played but I think it was a real mental challenge and those are the kind of games you have to get through in these tournaments.

"Miguel played really well today and matches against him are always difficult," added Golan, whose head-to-head record with the Colombian was poised at 3-3 going into the match. "We had some long, tough rallies and he showed his character when I had match ball in the third game and he managed to take that one so I'm pleased to have come through in the end."

Elsewhere Egyptian trio Mohamed Elshorbagy, Omar Mosaad and Karim Abdel Gawad progressed to the second round, beating South African Stephen Coppinger, Canada's Shawn Delierre and fellow countryman Karim Ali Fathi, respectively.

At the end of the day, France's joint world No1 Gregory Gaultier wasted no time in despatching English qualifier Joe Lee 11-5, 11-1, 11-0 in just 27 minutes.

2nd round line-up:
[1] Nick Matthew (ENG) v Laurens Jan Anjema (NED)
[8] Peter Barker (ENG) v Mathieu Castagnet (FRA)
[5] James Willstrop (ENG) v Amr Shabana (EGY)
[3] Ramy Ashour (EGY) v Marwan Elshorbagy (EGY)
[4] Mohamed Elshorbagy (EGY) v Omar Mosaad (EGY)
Tarek Momen (EGY) v Saurav Ghosal (IND)
[7] Borja Golan (ESP) v Simon Rosner (GER)
[2] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) v Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY)