Houston Open SF: Mohamed ElShorbagy Beats Hesham To Reach Fifth Final Of The Season

No.2 seed Mohamed ElShorbagy produced a battling performance to defeat crowd-favourite and No.4 seed Mazen Hesham in four games to move into his fifth final of the season and give himself a shot at 49th PSA title.

In similar style to his first two matches in the tournament, ElShorbagy came out the traps firing in the opening game. Volleying the ball at every opportunity and trying to make the match as hard as possible, physically, for the well-supported Mazen Hesham. ElShorbagy led 8-4, but the skills of Hesham can never be ignored. He rattled off several winners to run though and steal the first game 11-9.

The second game was tight throughout with both players unable to pull away from each other on the scoreboard. The quality of the squash was of the highest quality as ElShorbagy was looking to work the ball deep to set up his attacking opportunity, whereas Hesham was firing the ball short left, right and centre. ‘The Falcon’ saved a game ball at 10-9 but was unable to carry any momentum into the tiebreak as ‘The Beast’ levelled, winning 12-10.

The physicality of the opening two games were certainly taking its toll on both players in the third and fourth games, but more so for No.4 seed, Hesham. He was still able to produce outrageous winners but the pressure from ElShorbagy was relentless. The former World No.1 kept his focus to take the games 11-7, 11-8 and reach yet another PSA World Tour final. He’s set up a mouth-watering final clash with the World No.1 to be, Mostafa Asal.

“You can never write me off, never ever, you can never write ‘The Beast’ off,” said ElShorbagy.

“I was 9-6 up in the first and I had no right to lose that game, but it’s what you do and how you come back after losing a tough first game like that. When I was 6-1 down I had a walk to the towel and told myself to breathe, think, everything is happening too fast, calm down, see what’s going on, where is he getting winners from and try to find a way back. 

“I just fought. I was 1-0 & 6-1 down in a semi, it’s not easy to come back, especially against someone like Mazen [Hesham], who can get quick winners. As I said you can never write me off, I came back and won and I’m in another final this season and I can’t wait to be there tomorrow.

“A lot of people said last season that I was done, I was gone, there is no way back for ‘the Beast‘. I don’t know where those people are anymore. It’s very easy to sit behind a keyboard and just comment here and there when you have no idea how it is at the top. People said when I moved to England Squash that they’re getting an old man, but I promised that I would go back to World No.1 and I’m on my way there and I want to get there, nothing is going to stop me. 

“Every time I lost the Word No.1 spot, I knew how to get it back, this time is the toughest challenge because I’m definitely not 15 years old anymore, but I’m smarter and I’m using my experience. Tomorrow I’m playing the World No.1 to be. Asal has been playing incredibly and I’m honoured to be his first match as No.1 because this guy is going to be one of the greatest players of our sport. My first match as a World No.1 was against my idol Amr Shabana and I will never forget that 2014 U.S Open. I am going to try and take it from him next week at the TOC [Tournament of Champions], so let’s see.”

Result:

[2] Mohamed ElShorbagy (ENG) bt [4] Mazen Hesham (EGY) 3-1: 9-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-8 (52m)