Houston Open QF: ElShorbagy Wins 10th Successive PSA Quarter Final

World No.6 Marwan ElShorbagy was competing in his 10th successive PSA World Tour quarter final as he took on France’s Gregoire Marche for a spot in the Houston Open 2023 semi-finals. 

‘The Jackel’ set his stall out early in the match with intense and accurate play to test the movement of Marche, who came through a tough five set match with compatriot Auguste Dussourd yesterday. ElShorbagy was constantly hunting the volley to find winners against Marche and managed to tidy up some loose drives from the Frenchman to take both the opening two games 11-8.

The movement of Marche is well known to be an outstanding trait of his and it was being tested to the maximum against ElShorbagy, who continued to twist and turn the Frenchman. ElShorbagy’s consistency has been paramount to his success this season and the sharp concentration from the World No.6 enabled him to close out the third game 11-9 and take his place in the semi-finals.

ElShorbagy will be up against top seed Mostafa Asal in tomorrow’s semi-final and had this to say about that clash and his win against Marche:

“I’m really happy with my performance today, Greg [Marche] is a great player, he’s so experienced and has been on tour for so many years so I know how dangerous he is. He’s very fast and explosive and to beat him in three games gives me a lot of confidence.

“I’m relaxed off court, but it’s [being relaxed, but aggressive] something I’m working on, to focus and relax but at the same time not to lose the aggressive part of my game. I think I lost that last season but I’m trying to stay relaxed but focused and I showed that today and I’m really happy to be enjoying playing again.

“Mostafa [Asal] is going to get to World No.1 at some point but everyone has a job to do, I’m trying to get my ranking up, Mostafa is trying to be World No.1, I’m sure my brother is just trying to focus on tonight, he has a job to do before thinking about getting to No.1. So, it’s exciting for the sport,  a lot can happen this week which is good and I’m really looking forward to playing Mostafa tomorrow. He’s the smartest player on tour at the moment, he had a really good Hong Kong Open and I’m just really looking forward to being on court with him again.” 

Result:

[3] Marwan ElShorbagy (EGY) bt [8] Gregoire Marche (FRA) 3-0: 11-8, 11-8, 11-9 (40m)