CANBERRA: Egypt’s Ramy Ashour won through to the last eight of the Professional Squash Association (PSA) Super Series Australian Open Thursday to stay on course to meet world number one Nick Matthew in the final.
Second seed Ashour defeated Australian Cameron Pilley 11-7, 11-3, 14-12 and will now face Frenchman Thierry Lincou in Friday’s quarter-finals.
Ashour’s form matched Englishman Matthew, who beat Egypt’s Wael El Hindi 11-6, 11-7, 11-3 in the day’s opening match.
Matthew will next face countryman Peter Barker, who had an easy passage into the final eight when English opponent Adrian Grant was forced to retire ill while trailing 11-1, 2-0.
Lincou joined fellow Frenchman Gregory Gaultier in the last eight when he came from a game down to beat Dutchman Laurens Jan Anjema 5-11, 11-9, 11-4, 13-11.
"I knew I had to break his momentum and his pace, so I had to stay with him in the rallies," Lincou said.
"I had very good patches, especially in the third, other than that it was very tense."
Gaultier looked like he was back to his best as he downed Englishman Tom Richards 11-7, 11-7, 11-6 in the first match of the evening session.
Gaultier has a quarter-final against Karim Darwish, who impressively beat fellow Egyptian Mohamed El Shorbagy 11-5, 11-9, 11-6.
Australian 10th seed David Palmer’s dreams of a second Australian Open are over after he was beaten in four games by sixth seeded Englishman James Willstrop.
Willstrop powered to an 11-1, 9-11, 11-2, 11-3 win and a quarter-final with third seeded Egyptian Amr Shabana.
The 34-year-old Palmer looked out of sorts for much of the match and Willstrop took full advantage.
"I played well but I had to play well," Willstrop said. "He’s played better than me enough times so I’m happy to get one over him."
Shabana reached the quarter-finals when he beat Malaysian Ong Beng Hee 12-10, 11-6, 11-8.
