Victor Crouin meets Auguste Dussourd in all-French semi-final in Nantes
Last Brit standing Tesni Evans wins through to face top seed Nele Gilis
By ALAN THATCHER (Squash Mad Editor)
Victor Crouin will meet Auguste Dussourd in an all-French semi-final of the Open de France de Squash after winning their quarter-final ties in Nantes earlier this evening.
Dussourd beat England’s George Parker after a tough opening game, and Crouin followed a similar path against Mexico’s Leonel Cardenas.
Women’s No.3 seed Tesni Evans of Wales is the last British player in the tournament . She beat Egypt’s Nardine Garas and meets top seed Nele Gilis in tonight’s semi-finals.
Gilis began day four with a win over the dangerous Egyptian Salma El Tayeb, 11-6, 11-6. The 26-year-old Gilis used her smooth and efficient movement to counter the attacks of the Egyptian and used height well to disrupt her rhythm.
After securing the first game 11-6, Gilis continued in the same fashion, relentlessly finding the back corners with good precision to limit the El Tayeb attacks.
Gilis was helped by errors from the World Junior Championships runner-up to take the second game again 11-6 to win the match and reach the semi-finals.
She had this to say after her win: “I think I got better towards the end. At the start I was nervous because I want to do well here at my favourite tournament. Salma just made the final of the World Junior Championships, I know it would be tough to beat her. So I was a bit edgy and nervous but I’m just glad I could sneak the win 2-0.
“Its definitely a surprise for me to back playing pain free so quickly. I couldn’t be more happy about it. My goal was to be fit for this event really and play in front of this amazing crowd.”
No.3 seed Tesni Evans safely booked her place in the semi-finals after a convincing 11-8, 11-7 victory over Egypt’s Nardine Garas. The teenager overcame England’s No.5 seed Lucy Turmel in the last 16 to set up the quarter final encounter.
Evans is renowned for her excellent weight of shot to the back of the court and found her length immediately in her fist outing on the all glass court in Nantes. Evans possesses great deception from all areas of the court and used this to great effect to stop and start the movement of Garas to not allow the Egyptian to make progress in the match.
Evans continued to pile the pressure on her younger opponent in the second game an although Garas showed signs of making headway in the match, Evans’ experience came through for her to keep the Egyptian pinned to the side wall to close the match out. She now faces Belgium’s No.1 seed Gilis for a spot in the final.
Evans said: “She’s very attacking and dangerous, you know she beat Lucy [Turmel] in the round before and I tried to just use the front when she did. I tried to make the rallies long and hard and keep the ball tight to the side wall.
“It’s very motivating [the crowd]. this is why we play, we want this from the crowd. I’ve never seen anything like this. The louder the better, the drunker the better, it’s amazing.”
Open de France de Squash, Hangar 24, Nantes, France.
Men’s Quarter Final (Bottom Half):
[4] Victor Crouin (FRA) bt Leonel Cardenas (MEX) 2-0: 14-12, 11-3 (32m)
Auguste Dussourd (FRA) bt [8] George Parker (ENG) 2-0: 12-10, 11-6 (46m)
Men’s Semi-Finals (Friday, September 16):
[1] Marwan ElShorbagy (EGY) v [3] Saurav Ghosal (IND)
[4] Victor Crouin (FRA) v Auguste Dussourd (FRA)
Women’s Quarter Finals (Bottom Half):
[3] Tesni Evans (WAL) bt Nardine Garas (EGY) 2-0: 11-8, 11-7 (22m)
[1] Nele Gilis (BEL) bt Salma Eltayeb (EGY) 2-0: 11-6, 11-6 (23m)
Women’s Semi-Finals (Friday, September 16):
[2] Tinne Gilis (BEL) v Fayrouz Aboelkheir (EGY)
[3] Tesni Evans (WAL) v [1] Nele Gilis (BEL)
Pictures courtesy of Mikael Ropars, Lauranne Rochais, Nathalie Goossens, etienne.now and PSA World Tour
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