ElShorbagy Avenges Marche Defeat to Make Canadian Open Semis

Top seed Mohamed ElShorbagy avenged his recent Texas Open defeat to Gregoire Marche with a commanding three-game victory over the Frenchman at the 2025 AirSprint Private Aviation Canadian Open, booking his spot in the last four of the PSA Squash Tour Bronze event in Calgary.

The former World Champion, who suffered a career-first loss to world No.21 Marche just a week ago, righted the wrongs from that day to take an 11-6, 11-5, 11-6 win on the all-glass court in Bow Valley Square.

Right from the offset, ElShorbagy's intent was evident, stepping up the court whenever possible and looking to implement an extremely high tempo. 'The Beast' moved through to take a 14-minute opening game by an 11-6 scoreline and had soon after doubled his advantage.

France's Marche began to find his feet early in the third, finding joy from the middle of the court and taking a 4-0 advantage. However, this period of momentum was short-lived for the No.5 seed, with ElShorbagy firstly drawing level and soon afterwards moving through to a near-faultless victory after just 36 minutes of play.

"I was definitely quite angry with myself last week," ElShorbagy said after the match.

"I felt I was playing well. I played well against Ali [Farag] at the Tournament of Champions and then I trained really well in February. I was really ready to play well in Houston and then I was very frustrated. I don't mind losing, but the way I lost, I didn't like it.

"I stayed in Houston and I trained over there for a few days afterwards. That helped to sharpen me up for here and I'm really pleased with how I played today. I feel ready here this week and I'm going to look forward to tomorrow."

ElShorbagy will face No.3 seed Dimitri Steinmann in the semi-finals after the Swiss No.1 fought back from a game behind to defeat No.8 seed Omar Mosaad in the last match of the day.

Despite a slow start, Steinmann worked his way back into the encounter through the use of testing, physical rallies - a tactic which reaped its rewards in the latter stages of the match as 36-year-old Mosaad began to tire. World No.20 Steinmann moved through to take a 7-11, 11-3, 11-8, 11-2 victory and advance to his first semi-final of the 2024/25 PSA Squash Tour season.

Elsewhere, No.4 seed Leonel Cardenas was required to dig deep into his reserves on his way to sealing a semi-final spot after edging past England's Nathan Lake in a brutal four-game clash.

The pair were going head-to-head for the second time this month, with Cardenas previously fighting from 2/1 down to claim victory in the second round of the Motor City Open. This time around proved to be just as eventful, with the Mexican No.1 eventually taking the match by a 12-10, 4-11, 11-7, 13-11 victory after 82 minutes of exhausting play.

"It was such a tough match today," Cardenas reflected after the match. "All credit to Nathan - it was so hard to get through and get the win. I'm so happy with the result and so happy to get through to the next round.

"I'm looking forward to playing the next round and I'll make sure I'm ready to try to reach another final."

No.2 seed Victor Crouin will be the Mexican's semi-final opponent in Calgary after the Frenchman came through a scrappy four-game affair with England's Nick Wall.

In a match that saw regular traffic in the middle of the court and both players' levels rise and fall with regularity, it was former finalist Crouin who ultimately managed to advance by an 11-5, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7 scoreline despite never finding his very best squash.