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SmartCentres Kinetic Florida Open: Elshorbagy Celebrates Birthday with Win in 700th Match
Mohamed Elshorbagy celebrated his birthday with a win, beating Gregoire Marche to reach the semi-finals of the SmartCentres Kinetic Florida Open.
The Englishman was also playing the 700th match of his PSA career, becoming the youngest player to hit that milestone since records began, and made sure it would be a day to remember with a 3-1 win.
After opening up a sizeable lead in the opening points of game one, Elshorbagy was pegged back to 6-6 by the Frenchman, but he closed out the game when Marche attempted an ambitious back-court boast that found the tin.
Game two was more straightforward for Elshorbagy, who kept Marche at arm’s length throughout before hitting a crisp cross-court forehand which found the nick on game ball.
Game three was a different story, though, with Marche forcing ‘The Beast’ into some uncharacteristic errors to give himself four game balls.
Looking to regain control, Elshorbagy dominated the opening rallies of game four to give himself a 6-2 lead, but Marche would not go down without a fight.
He hit a brilliant forehand smash into the nick at 7-4 down then closed the gap to a single point after winning a breathless rally in which he had to recover from his knees, but ultimately it would prove to be too little too late, with another tin on match ball handing Elshorbagy victory.
Speaking after victory about his achievement of reaching 700 matches, Elshorbagy revealed his pride, while setting his sights on more milestones in the future.
“I’m really proud,” he said. “I’m not sure how many players get to 700 – I know Greg [Gaultier] and James [Willstrop] were in the 700s – and I’m really, really proud of the achievement of being the youngest ever to do it.
“But hopefully I have a few more years left in me, hopefully I can think about 800, and why not think about the 1,000th match one day, as long as I can keep myself healthy.
“But for today the focus was just on the task, playing Greg Marche, trying to forget that I’m 33 today, trying to forget that I’m playing my 700th match and just think about the performance.
Speaking on the performance itself, Elshorbagy added: “I’m really, really pleased. I think I played much better than yesterday, focus-wise, and performance-wise I felt much more comfortable with the court.
“Greg obviously had a tough match yesterday and sometimes than can make you a little bit slow at the start and get you sharper as the match goes on, so after I lost that third game I had to take the pace up to another level in the fourth, especially at the start.
“But even when I was 6-2 up he still came back at me, so he’s a great player.
“We started together in juniors. I still remember our first match together in juniors, at the U15 British Junior Open in Hallamshire. I was the No.1 in Egypt, he was the No.1 in Europe, a lot of people were waiting for that match.
“If I remember, it was on court No.6 at the Nick Matthew Court. I never forget that match because there was so much around it at the time.”
Result: [3] Mohamed Elshorbagy (ENG) bt Gregoire Marche (FRA) 3-1: 11-8, 11-7, 7-11, 11-6 (42m)
