Last 16 Round 3

ALL THE PHOTOS

[4] Mostafa Asal 3-0 Patrick Rooney (ENG)  12-10, 11-9, 11-6 (50m)
Miguel Rodriguez (COL) 3-1 Youssef Soliman  6-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-8 (75m)

Olivia Fiechter (USA) 3-0 [7] Rowan Elaraby 12-10, 11-7, 11-9 (28m)
[8] Nour El Tayeb v Nele Gilis (BEL)
[1] Nouran Gohar 3-0 Sabrina Sobhy (USA) 11-3, 12-10, 11-4 (27m)

[5] Joelle King (NZL) 3-0 Nada Abbas  11-3, 11-3, 11-7 (28m)
4] Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG) 3-0 Farida Mohamed  11-6, 11-6, 11-8 (25m)
[2] Hania El Hammamy 3-1 Georgina Kennedy (ENG) 11-9, 11-6, 5-11, 11-7 (48m)

Mazen Hesham 3-2 [7] Marwan ElShorbagy  11-9, 9-11, 12-10, 4-11, 11-5 (51m)
[1] Ali Farag 3-0 Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY)  11-8, 11-4, 11-9 (38m)

Mostafa said

“I’m very very pleased to play here on this court, it’s a legendary tournament as well. I want to thank Patrick for the fair play and free-flowing squash. I used to watch him at the British Junior Open with all of his skills and me and my dad used to say ‘wow’ when we watched him. I want to thank him for an amazing performance.

“They are playing amazing [Rodriguez & Soliman], I think they’ll have a good battle, I hope it’s 3-2.“It was 6-2 to him and I was a bit rushed at the beginning. I made some errors which weren’t in my tactics, but it was tough mentally in the first game and I’m happy to move through.

“I just love playing here, I want to thank everyone who is coming at 12:45, it’s a bit early but thank you for coming and supporting the squash.”

Nouran said

“Sabrina is a very tough opponent and she retrieves everything and it’s always tough playing her because you think the ball is gone and it keeps coming back, but I was expecting this, I knew it wouldn’t be easy but I’m glad I could get my game plan back after that second.

“Both are very quick players (Nour El Tayeb & Nele Gilis), they retrieve so well, Nour is always diving and Nele is always running so I’m thinking a lot of running for tomorrow for sure. But I’m really looking forward to this one, so I think it’ll be a good match.

“I just hope they have a tough match and they’re going to be tired for tomorrow.

“I’m super happy to be back to World No.1. I cant grasp everything at once because I won’t be able to celebrate because I’ll be on court, but I’m happy with how things went this year, and its been coming for the past six/seven years and sometimes you think you won’t be at this point again so now I’m just happy that I have improved and I’m back at this spot once again.”

 

Hania said

“We’ve never played but I’ve been watching her a lot, I know she’s a tough opponent, she’s so physical, we’ve trained a couple of times and even in practice, it feels like a best of five. I had to bring my A game today, it was so hard but I’m glad I’m through.

“Yeah, it’s such a physical match so I need to be prepared for the first point, I can’t take anything for granted, I have to do a lot of footwork drills so that I’m sharp so I can be ready.

“She’s improved a lot recently, she’s pushed Nour (El Sherbini) the last twice which is very big, I watched both of those matches and she did very well, but I’m looking forward to that match as I haven’t played Tinne in a long time.”

Tarek said

“He put up a huge fight. I was particularly proud of my performance in the second game, I felt like I played the perfect game and despite all that he never gave up and kept pushing, he only gave me one or two errors but wasn’t phased when I went 2-0 up. He came into the third firing but then gave me some cheap errors. But in the fourth, surprisingly we changed the ball and it came out more dead than the other one and we kind of struggled to get it to the back and whoever would take the ball in short would win the points.

“I was just thinking I wanted to get into a good rhythm to start the fourth in the best shape so I forgot about the score and just remember the game plan, I just wanted to remember how I was playing and structure my rallies better and all of a sudden I found myself back.

“I can’t think about other people’s achievements, I just need to focus on my own.

“At this level, we’re not looking for weaknesses, we’re looking for the right game plan to increase my chance to win. There aren’t any standout weaknesses in his game, it’s just the tactics on court that make the difference so I’m looking forward to the rest day tomorrow sn then we will see how it goes.”

Ali said

“I was getting ready for the fourth, to be honest. At the back end of the third he was going for his shots and they were going in so I thought at least put some work into his legs and I didn’t think I would wi it but thankfully I did. Karim makes me very very edgy, my food appetite is not the same when I’m nervous and I hardly ate any lunch, Karim is a former world no.1 world champion, I haven’t beaten him in 2/3 years, his drop in the rankings doesn’t reflect his level. I have been making the quarters for the last 5 years so I didn’t want to break that streak here and I’m very relieved to be through.

“I’ve never played Baptiste before, it’s very rare with him making some last 16s that we haven’t played yet, so I don’t know what to expect from him. But I know what to expect from Tarek and he knows what to expect from me. Another former world champion and it’s always a tough match. We’re not used to playing in the quarters if he does get through but I have the rest day tomorrow.

“I’m luckier than any other player on tour, I was very nervous, Farida (Ali’s daughter) wanted to go to sleep, so I told Nour to let me take her and spend some time with her. I’ll be looking after her tomorrow whilst Nour gets ready for her match and hopefully, she does well in her match and we go again on quarters day.

Mazen said

“First of all, tough luck to Marwan, it is tough playing him. He has had the better of me over the years, so I’m just happy to be able to push him that way and get the win in the end.

“I think what people don’t know at home is that we’re exhausted mentally, they say that we’re not physically fit and all of this but they don’t know what happens behind the scenes. I think both of us coming into this match are tired, I can see everyone’s faces at this event and we’re all tired.

“Just to be able to push one more match and one more round, people always talk to me about not being mentally fit, but they haven’t been what I’ve been through, they’ve not got what I’ve got so I’m sick of all of this and they don’t know anything. But just keep cheering us on so we can keep producing on court for you guys.

“May the best player win between those two, it’ll be a tough match I’m sure but I’m just going to recover and come back and try to play well in that match.”