Houston Open QF: Mohamed ElShorbagy Digs Deep To Defeat Dangerous Soliman

England No.1 Mohamed ElShorbagy needed to dig very deep to defeat dangerous Egyptian Youssef Soliman to progress to the Houston Open semi-finals at the Houston Squash Club.

The World No.4 turned 32 yesterday but showed no signs of ageing as the pace that he came out to in the first game was electrifying. His movement and hitting were completely in sync as he took the game to his younger opponent. Soliman found an avenue back into the game and levelled at 8-8 by hitting crisply to the back of the court. This pressure wasn’t enough for Soliman however as ElShorbagy (as he so often does) played the big points extremely well, to win 11-8.

Soliman matched ElShorbagy as the hard rallies continued. Both players were putting considerable work into one another with severe hitting to both the front and back corners. It was Soliman who earned the first game ball at 10-9, but was unable to convert as ElShorbagy found another gear and after levelling up, the former World Champion hit an unbelievable volley drop followed by an ace to take a 2-0 lead.

The third game started positively for Soliman, with the Egyptian leading 8-4 and looked sure to be taking the match into a fourth game. The stubborn ElShorbagy had other ideas however and started to mount his comeback. Once ‘The Beast’ got on a roll, he was never going to be stopped. The No.2 seed was able to physically back up tough rally after tough rally and stole the game away from Soliman to win 14-12 and move into the semi-finals.

“I’m very happy, Youssef [Soliman] is a high-quality player I had to produce my best squash to win,” said ElShorbagy after his win.

“He didn’t have a very good start in the first game, I was 6-1 up and I relaxed and he came back to show what a quality player he is. It was tough all the way through, the second game could have gone either way, the third game could have gone either way, just a bit of experience here and there, I played the big points better and I’m glad to win.

“When I was down in the third game I just thought to not let him win it easy. The mentality there is to think about the fourth game and think about if I’m going to lose this game, I need to make it as tough as possible to invest in the fourth game but obviously it was a big bonus to win in three.”

Result:

[2] Mohamed ElShorbagy (ENG) bt [6] Youssef Soliman (EGY) 3-0: 11-8, 12-10, 14-12 (59m)