BY ARMSTRONG VAZ
Doha: Top seed Gregory Gaultier of France and two-time winner Ramy Ashour of Egypt eased into the last sixteen stage of the PSA World Championship registering easy straight games wins at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex here yesterday.
The Frenchman, who is aiming to win the World title for the first time having finished runner-up on four occasions, took 31 minutes to end the challenge of Malyasian Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan 11-4, 11-7, 11-3.
The 31 year-old, who struggled to a 3-2 win over Egyptian qualifier Andrew Wagih Shoukry in the first round, found the right length to keep Adnan guessing.
Gautlier blamed the rusty first round show on the body clock.
“I put some skates on today, I was so unhappy after my poorperformance of the first round, no juice, no movement. I moved much better today, and found a bit of accuracy. But I’m still getting used to the court.
“I had trouble with my sleep, so I feel I had a jetlag syndrome after landing at 3am. Two nights with no sleep,” he commented.
“But now, I’m back to normal. I just was asleep on the court on the first day! There is a lot of positive, the fluidity in my movement is much better, but at the end of the day, as long as I win, I don’t care, that’s what matters,” added the Frenchman.
The top seed next faces Mosaad, the ninth seed, in the pre-quarter-finals tomorrow.
“I’ll have a big hurdle against Mosaad. He is always very consistent, he is a dangerous player. And you know nowadays, you can’t take anybody for granted,’ added Gautlier.
The Egyptian beat compatriot Karim Ali Fathi 11-4, 11-2, 11-7 in 29 minutes to set up the clash with Gautlier.
Also advancing into the last-sixteen stage was Ashour.
The man from Alexandria took half an hour to register an 11-6, 11-5, 11-9 win over Adrian Grant of England.
Ashour will take on Miguel Rodriguez the 12th seed in the next round.
Colombian Rodriguez beat Egypt’s Zahed Mohamed 11-2, 12-10, 11-7 to reach the last sixteen.
“I’m truly happy with my performance; I think I played my best squash, especially against such a good player. He is very tricky, very smart on court, so I’m very happy with my performance,” Rodriguez said. “You know, I can be the fittest guy on the planet, but if I don’t have the tactic in place, and if I don’t choose the right shot at the right time, it won’t be much use,” he said.
“So I have been training very hard with my Dad all summer, both on the technical and physical sides of things, focusing on my offensive game. And I’m happy to see that it’s working, as I had a few good results,” he added.
Earlier, Botswana’s Alister Walker won a thriller against Mathieu Castagnet 11-6, 11-5, 8-11, 9-11, 11-4. Walker won the first two but the French 16th seed rallied to next two games to force a decider.
The Botswana man was happy to qualify for the last sixteen stage.
“I did get through it eventually. Feels good to be back in the 16 best players, and I’m very happy. I feel I’m back to my best level, which is good as I didn’t have a good season last year, and I hope that I’ll manage to stay up there for a two or three years, as I won’t have much chance to come back there after that,” said Walker.
Walker will meet Cameron Pilley of Australia in the next match. Pilley stunned seventh seed Peter Barker of England 12-10, 11-6, 9-11, 6-11, 11-5 in a match which went on for 86 minutes. The second match was an upset too, as Fares Dessouki beat fellow Egyptian Marwan Shorbagy, the 13th seed, in straight games.
Dessouki will clash with sixth seed Borja Golan of Spain.
Golan lost his the first game but rallied to an 8-11, 11-2, 11-4, 11-2 win over Scottish qualifier Greg Lobban. Today’s action begins at 12noon.
THE PENINSULA
