Ghosal & Rodriguez Upset Seedings At St George's

Qualifiers Saurav Ghosal and Miguel Angel Rodriguez upset the seedings on day one of the Channel VAS Championships at St George's Hill after claiming wins over Egyptian duo Marwan Elshorbagy and Fares Dessouky, respectively, to reach the quarter-finals of the PSA M100 event in its third year in Weybridge, in the English county of Surrey.

Against world No.8 Dessouky, Rodriguez showed echoes of the form that took him to a career-high world No.4 two years ago as he hit consistent lines and retrieved well to claim his first win over a top 10 player since May 2016.

The two players went head-to-head in a back-and-forth encounter as they both enjoyed spells of superiority in an engaging 80-minute spectacle. Dessouky fought back from 2/1 down to force a decider but the Colombia, currently ranked 23 in the world, kept his head to prevail 8-11, 11-6, 11-7, 6-11, 11-5.

"I have won three matches in a row - last season I kept losing in the first round, so I'm happy with the performance and I think I played well," said Rodriguez, who was competing in his 400th PSA World Tour match.

"I found he got desperate because I felt he didn't know what to do and had no solutions. I was in a rush to get the match finished too quickly, especially in the fourth, which he won after winning five rallies in a row. I was a bit mentally stronger than him today.

"I had to be very patient and I think it worked."

Rodriguez will take on top seed Mohamed Elshorbagy after the Egyptian overcame former world No.5 Borja Golan in three games, beating the Spaniard 15-13, 11-8, 11-4 to improve on last year's first round exit.

"I'm enjoying it more this year, I want to play this year," said Elshorbagy senior.

"Last year I went through a lot and I struggled a little bit mentally, but all the greatest athletes have bad phases in their careers. If I have that phase when I'm 25 or 26, when I'm still building my career, then I am lucky. I did a lot of things differently the summer in the way I approach my game and the way I approach life in general."

Mohamed's younger brother Marwan slumped to a first round exit after the third seed lost out to India's Ghosal by a 3/0 margin.

Ghosal pounced on any loose shots from an out-of-sorts Elshorbagy as he raced around court and punished the Egyptian time and time again to claim an 11-7, 11-7, 11-2 triumph - his 200th win on the PSA World Tour.

"He's No.6 in the world right now and he's had a really good 12-18 months and deserves to be where he is," said world No.26 Ghosal.

"Beating a player of his calibre is definitely a good win and it goes with when I beat [Simon] Rösner in Macau, which was also a good win for me.

"All the wins against the top guys are important, they're small steps towards realising what I want to achieve in my career, so I'm happy that I managed to win today against a quality opponent."

Egyptian world No.18 Mohamed Abouelghar was the other victor on day one as he overcame Germany's Raphael Kandra 3/1 to set up a clash with Ghosal for a place in the semi-finals.