Mostafa Asal plays a shot during his quarter-final against Tarek Momen yesterday.
World No.10 Mostafa Asal yesterday pulled off a thrilling victory over former world champion Tarek Momen in the quarter-final of the Qatar QTerminals Classic, setting up a mouth-watering semi-final clash with second seed Paul Coll.
In what was arguably the most thrilling battle of the tournament so far, Asal prevailed over his opponent 4-11, 12-10, 11-9, 12-14, 11-4 after a marathon battle, which lasted for 114 minutes at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex.
It is fourth successive victory for Egypt’s 20-year-old over his compatriot.
“I’m glad to move through and I’m very pleased with my performance today,” Asal said after winning the match.
“At the beginning I wasn’t playing my best squash, but then I started to play the squash I played at the US Open. In the matches I’m getting better and better.”
Momen, who clinched the World title in Doha two years ago, was in brilliant form in the start as he took the first game easily. Asal won in the next two games before Momen had to take an injury break at 10-10 in the penultimate game after a collision with is opponent.
He eventually took the battle to decider but injury forced him to slow down as Asal marched into the semi-finals.
Earlier, New Zealand’s Coll bounced back from two match balls down to beat Egypt’s Mohamed Abouelghar 11-5, 4-11, 10-12, 12-10, 11-8 in a 93-minute thriller.
“It was an enjoyable match to be a part of and it was high quality,” said Coll.
“I was a little bit disappointed with some of the leads I had throughout the match, especially the third, when I didn’t close it out. Things kept going the wrong way for me, so it was a real mental battle for me. At the start of the fourth, I went down 6-1, I thought I was playing good squash but not winning rallies.”
Also yesterday, sixth seed Diego Elias of Peru battled past Germany’s Raphael Kandra 11-9, 8-11, 14-12, 11-1.
Kandra, who dispatched fourth seed Egyptian Marwan ElShorbagy earlier in the tournament, put up a tough fight against Elias in a gripping match that lasted for 63 minutes.
Elias won the first game before the World No.22 German fought back to level the match taking advantage of loose shots from his opponent. The Peruvian, however, bounced back to win the next two games for a win in yesterday’s first quarter-final.
“He’s a very tough opponent,” said Elias after securing the victory.
“We played two weeks ago at the US Open and I was winning comfortably, but then he started fighting and it was a very hard match. I’m very happy with how I fought and I’m happy with this win,” he added.
“I’m playing very far from my best this week. I haven’t been playing well, but I’m very happy with the way I’ve closed out every match. I kept fighting to the end and maybe in the past it would have been different and I would have just given up and gone home.”
Elias will now meet eighth seed Joel Makin of Wales, who brushed aside Egypt’s Mazen Hesham 11-9, 11-4, 11-3 in second quarter-final in 29 minutes.
It will be the first Qatar Classic semi-final appearance for the Welshman, who held his nerves after a bright start from Hesham to win the first game.
The Egyptian struggled with injury in the next two games with Makin sealing the win.
“I thought he was struggling with his body,” Makin said.
“It didn’t look like it in the first game though, he was moving pretty well and whatever serve variation I tried to do, he seemed to hit a good shot off it. I had to keep mixing that up and tried to make things difficult for him.
You never know what you’re going to get when someone is injured but I closed it down alright and used a bit of height, so I’m happy with that,” he added.
“I’m fresh going into a match with Diego who has had some tough matches, so I’ll put some work into him and see what I can do,” the Welshman said.
