India's Saurav Ghosal got past compatriot Mahesh Mangaonkar in straight games to set up a semi final date with South Africa's Stephen Coppinger in the JSW Indian Squash Circuit here on Friday.
The tournament's No. 3 seed Ghosal controlled play from the start, keeping the pace up and deploying shots with deadly accuracy to win 11-7, 11-3, 11-7 in 35 minutes at the Calcutta Racket Club.
Coppinger (RSA) and Zahed Mohamed (EGY) played a long and tight first game, which the former won after the Egyptian lost two game balls.
The South African kept up the momentum to claim the next two and finish off the tie in 65 minutes.
The final scoreline read A14-12, 11-5, 11-7.
"Any win is a good win at this stage," Coppinger said. "He beat me the last time we played, so I knew what to expect. He was really tough, right from the start all the way through. The first game was crucial. He had a few game balls. I was really lucky to come back in that one."
"The last time we played, I beat him 3-2. This time, of course, he wanted to win to have his revenge. So I was a bit nervous," Mohamed said.
The other quarterfinal match between Ris Simpson (England) and Greg Lobban (Scotland) was a master class in basics. The players exchanged some long, lovely rallies, but Simpson staked his claim to the T early and was always in control, winning 11-2, 11-5, 12-10 in 51 minutes.
"I was quite surprised by how well i played in the first game especially," Simpson said. "I felt like I was the one controlling the pace. I always felt slightly ahead in the rallies, and that eventuallyA wore him out toward the end. I'm very happy to be done in three."
"It was tough," Lobban said. "Chris dominated the court for the majority of the match. No matter how hard I tried, he found a way to stay in the middle. I ran out of gas quicker than I usually do because he was dominating the middle."
Marwan Elshorbagy of Egypt beat Rex Hedrick (Australia) 7-11, 11-8, 11-2, 8-11, 11-7 to set up a semi final date with Simpson.
