Wildcard James Stuns again to Down Gawad in London Classic QF

English wildcard Declan James continued his spectacular run at the GillenMarkets London Squash Classic as the  30-year-old beat Egyptian former World No.1 and 2016 World Champion Karim Abdel Gawad to reach the semi-finals of a PSA World Tour Gold-level event for the first time in his career.

The World No.76, who this week is playing his first World Tour event in over a year due to a serious achilles injury, has been in incredible form in London, recording wins over World No.19 Mohamed ElSherbini in round one and World No.14 in round two.

Today, though, he found another level against the World No.5 and one of the modern game’s greats.

Backed by a packed Alexandra Palace crowd, James attacked flawlessly in the first game, punishing loose shots from the Egyptian as he took an unlikely lead with an 11-8 win.

As in the first game, James’ short game was excellent in the second, with the Englishman stretching the court and moving Gawad around.

The Egyptian shotmaker managed to edge in front, however, and went game ball up at 10-9.

To the delight of the crowd, James hung on, forcing a tie break.

Once more, Gawad went game ball up and once more James defended, bringing the scores to 11-11.

Now it was the Englishman’s turn to move ahead, but he could not convert his first match ball as Gawad levelled at 12-12.

With the atmosphere now a bear pit, James went on the attack once more and this time made the breakthrough, with referee Pablo Del Rio’s “no let” decision in James’ favour at 13-12, after some deliberation, sending the crowd into raptures and James to his knees in disbelief.

Afterwards, James said: “I’m enjoying my squash, this is probably the best atmosphere I’ve ever played in. This is what our sport needs to be. What an incredible venue and incredible crowd, it’s weeks like this where our sport looks unbelievable, what a showcase.

“I’m just happy to be playing a decent standard. It’s been a long road back, a long 18 months, jeez, a lot of hard work and suffering. Nights like tonight make the suffering worth it.

“We’ve had a lot of battles over the years, I’ve taken him to five but never beaten him. He’s obviously the most skilled player of our generation, and you know when you play him it’s going to be clean squash. Some of the stuff he’s doing is unbelievable. But I’ve been close to him before and of course I’m happy to be here, but I’m not at the point of my career where I want to make up the numbers, I’m here to do some damage. 

“I actually like the best of five a little more, the physicality comes into it, it’s an all-out war. Best of three is very intense, because it’s shorter the pace goes up. Tomorrow’s a different kettle of fish against a different animal altogether. I’m going to enjoy this for a couple of hours and then will focus on tomorrow.”

Result: [WC] Declan James (ENG) bt [3] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) 2-0: 11-8, 14-12 (37m)

The semi-finals of the GillenMarkets London Squash Classic take place tomorrow, 31 March, at Alexandra Palace. Action will be streamed live on SQUASHTV from 15:00 (GMT).

For more information on the GillenMarkets London Squash Classic, visit the PSA website or follow the PSA on X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. You can also keep track of all of the live scores from the event by clicking here.