Mo on the march into San Francisco semi-finals as brother Marwan hits back to beat Miguel

By Alan Thatcher

October 3, 2022 - 3:54am

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By ALAN THATCHER (Squash Mad Editor) and CONNOR SHEEN (PSA)

England’s Mohamed ElShorbagy recorded an 11th consecutive victory over India’s Saurav Ghosal to move into his fifth Oracle NetSuite Open semi-final in San Francisco.

Continuing with the best of three games format, ElShorbagy was happy to attack flat out as Ghosal struggled to cope with his opponent’s pace and power.

‘The Beast’ lived up to his name throughout the match as his intensity and aggression reached new levels. He simply pulverised the ball to the back corners to dominate the middle of the court.

Ghosal struggled to impose his accurate, more delicate style on the proceedings and lost both games 11-6 in 34 minutes.

Mazen Hesham will be ElShorbagy’s opponent in the semi-finals after the Egyptian came through a tricky encounter with USA No.1 Shahjahan Khan on the all-glass court at Pier 70.

Hesham’s unpredictable style of play was troubling the American at first with the lack of rhythm working in the Egyptian’s favour. After losing the first game, Khan came back fighting and with the help of the home crowd secured the second game to force an exciting decider.

The final game was close until 7-7, but some uncharacteristic errors from Khan, partnered with two refereeing decisions not going his way, gave Hesham the final four points to earn him a spot in his first NetSuite Open semi-final.

The match of the day came from No.4 seed Marwan ElShorbagy and former British Open champion Miguel Rodriguez. The Colombian trailed for the majority of the opening game but managed to string together several winners at the back end of the game to take an important 1-0 lead in the final match of the evening.

ElShorbagy, who is renowned for his intelligent style of play, fought back and used his court craft and accurate straight line hitting to restrict Rodriguez. The World No.9 started to put some serious work into the legs of the Colombian and even the outrageous acrobatic abilities of Rodriguez were not enough to deny the No.4 seed a place in the final four. ElShorbagy had this to say about his win and upcoming match.

"It was all in the mind today, I felt, and I'm glad I kept my focus from the second game and I'm glad I got the win because it was a really hard match"