Colombian Rodriguez Survives Grasshopper Marathon

Colombia's Miguel Rodriguez saved four match balls en-route to a five-game victory over Egypt's world No.14 Zahed Salem to reach the quarter-finals of the Grasshopper Cup in Zurich, Switzerland.

Surviving his second 100+ minutes match within a month - after overcoming England's James Willstrop in a 105-minute PSA World Championship clash in Chicago - the 33-year-old world No.6 beat Salem 8-11, 11-6, 9-11, 14-12, 11-5 in 102 minutes in the PSA World Tour Gold event at Halle 622 to set up a meeting with top seed Mohamed Elshorbagy, the 2018 runner-up.

"I knew it was going to be very tough, Zahed has been playing very well and I've been struggling a bit," said Rodriguez afterwards.

"It's always difficult coming to play the first match coming from Colombia, but there are no excuses, we fought until the end and I'm pretty happy with the way I fought back in the third game when I was down by those match balls.

"I was just focusing on playing and giving everything, and fortunately I won that fourth game and had the confidence to play in the fifth."

Rodriguez and Elshorbagy will meet in a repeat of the 2018 British Open final, where Rodriguez prevailed, against expectations. Elshorbagy has won all three of their fixtures since then though and he earned his spot in the last eight courtesy of an 11-7, 11-6, 11-7 victory over Spain's Borja Golan.

Elshorbagy claimed a narrow win over Golan two weeks ago at the Citigold Canary Wharf Classic, with that match played using a best-of-three games scoring format. The traditional best of five format is being used in Zurich though, and the Egyptian put in a composed display to earn his spot in the next round.

"I think this is the only tournament on the calendar that I haven't won yet," said the former world No.1.

"Last year, I was one match away, but Ramy [Ashour] was on his best form, and no-one can match him when he's on that form. This year, I'm going to try to go one more match, but I have to win three more matches to win this title and each match is like a final. A lot of players are playing great squash at the moment, and I am just trying to stay alive in this tournament as much as I can."

Another close encounter followed when Egypt's world No.4 Karim Abdel Gawad narrowly avoided a surprise defeat to Hong Kong's Max Lee, the world No.24.

Gawad twice came back from a game down to advance to the next round, winning 10-12, 11-6, 9-11, 11-4, 11-7.

"Playing Max is always very tough," said Gawad.

"Most of the time it's a five setter and, for me, he is one of the best movers on court. It was very tough today, especially when you're not playing your best squash and you're being passive with your winners."

Gawad's quarter-final opponent will be Germany's Simon Rösner after the world No.5 defeated Daryl Selby - the 2019 event's sole former champion - 11-7, 11-8, 11-6 to record his sixth successive win over the 36-year-old Englishman.

Rösner will aim to avenge a 3/0 defeat to Gawad in the quarter-finals of the JP Morgan Tournament of Champions in January.

"We've played a few times now and it's always tough, even though he played a five setter yesterday [against Australia's Cameron Pilley]," said Rösner.

"It's very tough to beat this guy and wear him down, so I'm glad to get through in three. I'm going to try to figure out a tactic [for the next match], I lost 3/0 to him in New York, so I'm trying to get revenge for that match and I'll see how it goes."