Brothers Ashour Progress In Athens
Egyptian brothers Hisham Mohd Ashour and Ramy Ashour confidently progressed through to the last eight of the Cadillac Athens Open Squash Championship in Athens - the first event in Greece to be played on an all-glass court.
Top seed Hisham Mohd Ashour recovered from a game down to overcome USA's Christopher Gordon 9-11 11-5 11-8 11-3 to set up a quarter-final against England's Alex Stait.
Defending champion Ramy, the 18-year-old from Cairo who is also the reigning world junior champion, defeated English qualifier Chris Simpson 11-5 11-5 11-3 and will now face another Englishman Alister Walker. Fresh from his first round British Open triumph in Manchester, where he beat Finnish seed Olli Tuominen, third seed Walker fought back from a game down to beat Italian qualifier Luca Mastrostefano 6-11 11-6 11-10 11-4.
The standout match of the day on the court, erected on a specially-designed platform built on top of the club’s swimming pool, saw India’s Ritwik Bhattacharya outlast England’s Sam Miller 11-5 11-3 10-11 11-10, in which Miller staved off five match balls before finally succumbing to the fourth seed.
Bhattacharya, the Indian No1, will now face fellow countryman and second-placed Saurav Ghosal, who defeated Swede Badr Abdel Aziz 11-6 11-9 5-11 11-5.
RESULTS: Cadillac Athens Open Squash Championship, Athens, Greece
1st round:
[1] Hisham Mohd Ashour (EGY) bt Christopher Gordon (USA) 9-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-3 (25m)
[6] Alex Stait (ENG) bt Fabian Kalaitzis (GRE) 11-4, 11-10 (2-0), 11-5 (19m)
[4] Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND) bt Sam Miller (ENG) 11-5, 11-3, 10-11 (2-4), 11-10 (4-2) (35m)
[7] Saurav Ghosal (IND) bt [Q] Badr Abdel Aziz (SWE) 11-6, 11-9, 5-11, 11-5 (27m)
[5] Ramy Ashour (EGY) bt [Q] Chris Simpson (ENG) 11-5, 11-5, 11-3 (18m)
[3] Alister Walker (ENG) bt [Q] Luca Mastrostefano (ITA) 6-11, 11-6, 11-10 (3-1), 11-4 (25m)
[8] Scott Handley (ENG) bt [Q] Mathieu Castagnet (FRA) 11-9, 11-7, 11-7 (19m)
[2] Ben Garner (ENG) bt Mark Krajcsak (HUN) 11-4, 11-8, 11-3 (16m)