Squash: Ashour to face defending champion Elshorbagy in all-Egyptian British Open final
Ramy Ashour and Mohamed Elshorbagyensured that the British Open title will be won by an Egyptian for the second straight year after they qualified for the final on Saturday.
World number five Ashour defeated Frenchman Gregory Gaultier 3-2 while defending champion Elshorbagy advanced with an easy 3-0 win over compatriot Karim Abdel-Gawad.
Ashour won the first two games 11/6 and 12/10 but Gaultier, second in the PSA Rankings, rallied back with 11/8 and 11/9 victories.
Ashour then settled the match in his favour with an 11/7 win in the final game to continue his bid towards winning his second British Open title.
"I was planning to play the best I could from the beginning and I did, but he was better than me at coming back, he was better than me when he was motivated. When he wanted to come back," Ashour was quoted as saying by Squashsite.
"He did a great job at coming back from 2-0 down and he used a different strategy. I felt there was something different going on, on court but I didn’t really capitalise on it.
"I didn’t pick up on what he was doing. I went with it and I should have been more cautious. I can’t really try to analyse this that much because I was close to going home and I didn’t. It’s been a long journey."
Ashour won his maiden British Open title in 2013 at the expense of Gaultier.
Elshorbagy, winner of the last edition in 2015, overcame Abdel-Gawad 11/8, 11/7, 11/7.
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