Paris Squash QF: Elias Conquers Gawad In Entertaining Four-Game Duel 

World No.4 Diego Elias delivered a superb all-round performance to see off the dangerous Karim Abdel Gawad in four games and progress to the last four at Paris Squash 2024. 

In a match jam-packed with quality, it was Elias’ disciplined and highly accurate squash which won the day, with the ‘Peruvian Puma’ holding off a barrage of winners Gawad to set up a meeting with World No.1 Ali Farag. 

After moving away in the pressure moments of a well-contested opening game to move one game up, Gawad came back firing, with his trademark attacking abilities in full flow for those spectating within the Cirque d’Hiver Bouglione. 

However, after levelling at 1-1, Gawad’s fine margins began to result in a number of errors, with his error count by the end of the third game at ten compared to ‘The Peruvian Puma’s’ three. 

Elias came through strong in the latter stages of the third to re-take the lead, and never looked back from there, wrapping up the victory after winning a one-sided fourth game 11-2. 

After the match, he said: “It was a really tough match today against Karim [Abdel Gawad]. He played really well in the last round so I knew it was going to be tough and it was. He made me run a lot, but I’m happy with what I had to do, I was moving well and I’m happy with that performance.

“I played well in the first game, but in the second game I left a lot of balls short and he started moving me a lot. He has amazing hands, he’s an amazing player and as soon as I leaving the ball short he made me run a lot and made me do a lot of work. I tried to go back to my basic length and start to defend better.”

Result: 

[4] Diego Elias (PER) bt [6] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) 3-1: 11-7, 9-11, 11-6, 11-2 (61m)