Beachill Fights Back To Reach Hong Kong Semis

England's second-seeded Lee Beachill overcame a two-game deficit to Scotland's former world No1 John White to reach the semi-finals of the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Open Championship - and later declared that it had been the best mental performance of his life.

The new 11-point PAR scoring system introduced to the Professional Squash Association's World Tour this week in Hong Kong was expected to favour the shot-makers and risk-takers of the circuit, but today's quarter-finals all benefited men whose games are founded in sound rallying and disciplined skills.

"I probably would not have won without my coach Malcolm Willstrop in the corner between games," said Beachill after his 9-11 8-11 11-10 11-10 11-5 victory in 67 minutes. "He talked me through the situation very calmly, keeping me convinced that I could still win the match once I could get my own game plan into play," explained the world No2 from Yorkshire.

"John was seeing the ball like a football in the first two games. All I could do was hold myself together and work to survive the blitz. The refereeing was poor, but it was poor for both of us, so that was another pressure to deal with. Once I escaped from matchballs in the third game, I was able to settle into my own game-plan and take over the front of the court enough to move back into the match."

White admitted that he thought the quarter-final was his when he fought back from 3-7 to 8-7 in the third game, after leading 2/0, despite a series of overly generous stroke decisions in mid-court - but the refusal of a let in the tiebreak, for a turning drive from Beachill at the back wall, seemed to completely unhinge the hard-hitting Scotsman's concentration.

Beachill will face Thierry Lincou in the semi-finals after the third-seeded Frenchman defeated Egypt's Amr Shabana, the World Open Champion, 11-5 6-11 11-1 11-6 in 33 minutes. The Egyptian, who beat Lincou in the final to win the world title in Pakistan, was limping as he left the court, complaining that his fight-back from two games down against England's James Willstrop the previous evening had left him with shin splints.

"People say this game is fast and less tiring," Shabana said. "I don't think it is that way at all. It is much more concentrated and explosive which is just as tiring as long slow marathon matches. I had a hard fight in the second round and my legs were in no shape at all for this quarter-final."

The other semi-final will also feature English interest when another Yorkshireman Nick Matthew, the eighth seed, plays Australia's fourth seed David Palmer. Matthew beat Adrian Grant, his closest friend and training partner, 7-11 11-5 11-8 11-10 - 24 hours after Grant claimed the win of his life by knocking out defending champion Peter Nicol, the world No1.

"All our matches are close," said Matthew after his 56-minute victory. "If that tiebreak in the fourth had gone the other way, the fifth game might have favoured either of us. The hardest part was separating ourselves from our friendship, with so much at stake on court."

Palmer, a former Hong Kong Open champion, defeated the Canadian showman Jonathon Power 11-9 8-11 11-5 11-10 in 55 minutes - surviving two bursts of outrageous front court attack, for which he later admitted he was prepared after training with Power at his Bermuda base during the summer.

"I am still not sure that I like this 11-point scoring, but I have to admit this was an exciting quarter-final session in which I was able to prove to myself that good rallying and disciplined racket-work can still win the day," said the Australian.

Power was another whose flair and improvisation on court was thought to be ideally suited to the new short game. Indeed, the Hong Kong audience was delighted by his sparkling capture of the second game and his scintillating return from 7-10 to a tiebreak, lost eventually at 13-15 in the last game. But Palmer withstood a severe battering in the top right-hand corner during the last game and several disruptive disputes with the marker before imposing his heavyweight rallying game upon the result.