Squash: Ashour racks up 38th successive win
Ramy Ashour beat Chris Simpson 11-2, 11-4, 11-9 to react British Open quarter-finals.
HULL (AFP) - Ramy Ashour, seeking to become the first Egyptian in nearly 50 years to win the British Open title, scored his 38th successive victory as he hurtled into the quarter-finals in little more than 20 minutes on Thursday.
Ashour overcame Chris Simpson, a qualifier from England, by 11-2, 11-4, 11-9, en route to what he hopes will be the eclipse of another Englishman, Nick Matthew, the defending champion whom he is seeded to meet in Sunday s final.
Ashour, who has already taken away Matthew s world title and world number one ranking, revelled in the cold conditions at Hull s football stadium, which placed an even greater premium on fast movement and early attack.
He captured the first 10 points in only three minutes, and threatened to swamp the home hope completely until Simpson relaxed and played better, making a contest of the third game.
"You know how easily things can go to your head, so I haven t thought about the winning streak. I am just trying to concentrate on what I have to do," said Ashour.
"I have done a lot of work and made a lot of sacrifices and I don t want to waste it. I am just trying to do what I have to do on court.
He next faces Borja Golan, the first Spanish-born player to reach the quarter-finals of the British Open, and could have a semi-final with James Willstrop, the Englishman who was world number one for much of last year.
Willstrop s match with Simon Rosner of Germany was interrupted by rain at 6-5 in the first game, and eventually forced to move late at night to a conventional plaster court at a nearby club.
Willstrop, the third seed, went on to complete a 11-9, 11-1, 11-6 win.
However, the surprise packet in the top half is Cameron Pilley, the Netherlands based Australian who recovered from a game and 3-9 down, and then save three match points in a sensational 13-15, 4-11, 11-9, 11-6, 13-11 win over Mohamed El Shorbagy, the Egyptian who was close to becoming world champion in Doha in December.
"You have to have faith in yourself -- it was under control all the time," Pilley joked afterwards. "Seriously though, I am not too sure how I turned it around.
"There had been no real purpose to my game, and he was just killing me. But I relaxed a bit and straightened it up a bit," added Pilley, who also used his long reach to increasingly good effect on the volley, and fought with great tenacity.
Later there was also a good fight-back by Laura Massaro, the second-seeded Englishwoman who has twice this year beaten Nicol David, the long-lasting world number one from Malaysia.
Now Massaro found herself four times within a point of going two games down to Dipika Pallikal, the 15th-seeded Indian whose ability in the front court and liking for angles boasted off the sidewall were well suited to the cold conditions.
"I didn t realise I was that far down," said Massaro after her 6-11, 12-10, 11-9, 11-6 survival. "I knew that in those conditions things can swing around very quickly because the ball was so dead, so I was just focussed on trying to keep very sharp."
Massaro will now play Omneya Abdel Kawy, the 2010 World Open runner-up, who beat Nour El Sherbini, her 17-year-old Egyptian compatriot, who was British Open runner-up last time.
Kawy had to save three game points in the first game and retrieve a 4-7 deficit in the third in her 16-14, 11-7, 11-8 success.
