Mueller Makes It An ElShorbagy Double At Canary Wharf Classic

Switzerland's Nicolas Mueller continued his fine run of form as he defeated Egypt's No.5 seed Marwan ElShorbagy for the second time in a week to reach the quarter finals of the GillenMarkets Canary Wharf Classic at East Wintergarden in London.

The two players faced each other just last week at the Optasia Championships in Wimbledon, where Mueller claimed the upset victory to reach his first semi-final at a PSA World Tour Gold event. The 'Swiss Rocket' backed that up with another win over the world No.7 in Canary Wharf.

The Swiss star, ranked 26 in the world, took the first game with his confident shot making coming to the fore before ElShorbagy got back on level terms to make it a straight shootout in the best-of-three format.

With the scores locked in at 5-5 it was the Swiss player who made the break and never looked back to close out 11-7, 6-11, 11-6 in 30 minutes.

"It was quite an intense game. In the best of three format the first game is so crucial," said Mueller. "When you get that 1/0 lead under your belt, it helps. Considering I played very well last week, I'm very happy I could keep that going into this week.

"If you're lower ranked you have nothing to lose and all the pressure is the top seed, and as we saw last night with Paul, the world No.1 losing, it can happen."

Mueller will face Peru's Diego Elias in the quarter finals after he got the better of experienced Frenchman Mathieu Castagnet, winner of the tournament back in 2016.

Elias, who finished runner-up at the Optasia Championships last week, moved Castagnet into all four corners of the court to comfortably book his place in the next round courtesy of an 11-7, 11-2 margin in 34 minutes.

"He's always been a warrior, I grew up watching him play, he was one of the fittest on Tour," said Elias. "I tried to make it long at the start, I think it worked. I think playing three games in 70 minutes the other day was tough for him and I'm just very happy to be done with this, it's best of three so I was a bit nervous.

"You have to be at your best from the start, you see so many upsets in best of three, so I need to get a really good warm-up and be ready for tomorrow."

The other quarter final in the bottom half of the draw will see No.2 seed Mostafa Asal face world No.8 Welshman Joel Makin.

Asal's last appearance on the Tour came in January's Houston Open before his suspension - however, he returned with a bang as he edged out England's Nathan Lake in two tight games.

The Egyptian took the opening game 11-9 after some gruelling rallies with both players trying to figure each other out. However, the pace and power of Asal's movement and hitting proved too much in the end.

More competitive squash followed as the accuracy of Lake was troubling the 20-year-old, but Asal stuck to his task and managed to squeeze an error from the racket of Lake on match ball to secure his quarter final place.

"I want to say, I've missed you guys," said Asal in his post-match interview in front of the packed-out East Wintergarden crowd.

"I'm impressed with the way Nathan played, he was unbelievable. First of all, I'm really happy to be back, not competing for two months is ridiculous for me. I'm happy I'm back here playing my squash, playing competitive matches, especially Canary Wharf, this crowd is amazing.

"He played superbly. I'm happy to be through you saw yesterday how Victor [Crouin] beat Paul [Coll], so I was wary about Nathan winning today."

Makin, meanwhile, held off fiery Frenchman Baptiste Masotti to advance to the last eight of the Gold event.

An attritional first game suited Makin to take the lead and he then managed to hold off Masotti, who rattled off several outrageous winners, in the second to claim an 11-7, 12-10 victory to end the night.

"Baptiste was incredibly attacking in that match," said Makin. "I managed to keep the ball away from shoulder height but he had a patch in the second where everything was a straight kill or a cross-court nick but I had to get it high and switch it to close it down but found the quality in the end.

"It'll be an interesting match tomorrow, I'm looking forward t it, he's causing a few issues and getting stuck in and I do enjoy that so it'll be good."