World No. 1 James Willstrop (right) of England returns the ball during his match against Shawn Delierre of Canada at the PSA World Championship at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex yesterday. Willstrop won 11-2, 11-0, 11-7. pictures by: Syed Omar
Doha: Top-seed James Willstrop of England breezed past Shawn Delierre of Canada to move into the pre-quarter-finals of the PSA World Championship.
Yesterday at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, the world No.1 took just 25 minutes to blow away the world No. 43 by registering a 11-2, 11-0, 11-7 straight games win.
Willstrop found the nicks, the accuracy, the width and the angles to trouble Delierre who was left clueless. The Canadian could take just two points from the first game and it was worse in the second, where he drew a blank.
The Englishman finally wrapped it up in the third game winning it at 11-7.
Also making it to the next round was the English duo of Peter Barker and Daryl Selby. Fourth seed Karim Darwish of Egypt, bidding to win the World Championship for the first time, also made it to the pre-quarter-finals and so did compatriot Mohamed El Shorbagy.
Others who made it to the round of 32 were India’s Saurav Ghosal and Spain’s Borja Golan.
Leeds-based Ghosal will take on his training partner Willstrop in the pre-quarter finals tomorrow.
Yesterday Ghosal ended the dream run of Karim Abdel Gawad. The Egyptian retired hurt in the third game with the Indian having taken the first two games and was leading 6-1 in the third.
Gawad, who recorded the upset in the Qatar Championship when he despatched England’s 14th seed Tom Richards in the first round of the premier championship on the PSA World Tour, could not work his magic against the Indian yesterday.
The 21-year-old from Cairo kept fighting back but an old injury dashed his hopes.
Spaniard Golan defeated Alan Clyne of Scoland 11-7, 11-7, 11-7 in a match which went on for 47 minutes.
Golan takes on sixth seeded Barker who rallied from behind against Mathieu Castagnet of France to win 2-11, 11-6, 13-11, 11-4 in a match which lasted for exactly an hour. The Englishman dropped the first game but won the next three games.
In the other matches, El Shorbagy defeated Gregoire Marche of France 11-3, 11-9, 12-10 and will clash with Cameron Pilley of Australia. The world No.16 ended the challenge of the lone surviving Malaysian Nafiizwan Adnan by winning 11-3, 11-8, 11-5. The Australian will take on El Shorbagy in the next round clash. Former world No.1 Darwish was in top form during his clash with Simon Rosner of Germany while winning in straight games 11-5, 11-5, 11 -4.
The Egyptian will take on Selby who ended the dream run of qualifier Omar Abdel Meguid of Egypt by scripting an easy 11-9, 11-8, 11-3 victory. Eight pre-quarter-final matches will take place today and the remaining ones will take place tomorrow.
The peninsula
