Diego Elias of Peru returns the ball to Mohamed Elshorbagy of Egypt during the quarter-final clash of the Qatar Classic 2018 at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha yesterday.
Doha: Eight-seed Diego Elias of Peru stunned World No. 1 Mohamed Elshorbagy to pull off the biggest upset of his PSA Tour career.
Yesterday at the Qatar Classic 2018 the Peruvian won the five- game thriller to set up a semi-final clash with Germany’s Simon Rosner.
Yesterday at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, world champion and defending champion Elshorbagy’s dream of winning a fourth Qatar Classic title was dealt a painful blow with Elias clinching the 76-minute tussle for supremacy 11-8, 11-13, 13-11, 10-12, 11-7 and book a place in the semi-finals.
The Egyptian, who was a hot favourite heading into the tournament, having reached the final for the last five consecutive events could not live up to his billing with Elias outsmarting him.
The first four games could have gone either way, but it was all Elias in the fifth, even though Elshorbagy saved three match balls before finally succumbing. Speaking to journalists after the match Elias said the turning point was the mental approach.
“I’m really happy, I was very close to beating a few top players in the past. Today was my day,” said Elias. “The difference is that i believe in me that I can beat those top guys. At the British Open, I was 2-0 up against him (Elshorbagy), but I just never believed I could do it. Now I do believe. I am injury free, my fitness is good, I didn’t do anything special, I just believe I am good enough to do it.”
The other quarter-final was also a tense affairs, with Rosner coming from a game down to beat New Zealand’s Paul Coll in a match that looked destined to go to a fifth.
“We always play long matches. It’s so tough to score against him. So after the first game, I just made sure I reduced my errors as I did 5 or 6 in that opener, and I just cannot do that against a player such as Paul. I’m happy I fought my way back into the match, and got my head straight after the loss of the first where I was struggling a bit mentally,” Rosner said. In the other quarter-finals matches, second seed Ali Farag won the all-Egyptian clash with Karim Abdel Gawad in straight games 11-9, 11-7, 11-8 .
“I’m trying to improve constantly and put in everything that I can. I have good memories from here last year, it’s good to be back at the semis and it’s time to prepare for a really tough battle in semis,” the German added.
A disappointed Coll said: “I just never found the right balance between being too relaxed and being too stressed. I was not thinking enough about my shots, they didn’t have any purpose, and I need to be thinking more about what I’m doing instead of just reacting to what he is doing.”
In the other quarter-finals, an Egyptian finalist was guaranteed as second seed Ali Farag continued his winning run over Karim Abdel Gawad, winning in three close games, while Tarek Momen, last year’s finalist, finally ended the run of unseeded Joel Makin. The Welshman took the lead, and had game ball to go ahead again in the third, but once Momen had averted that danger he took control in the fourth.
