[6] Diego Elias (PER) bt [13] Fares Dessouky (EGY) 10-12, 11-8, 11-6, 11-4 (56m)
Like the match before, a very entertaining encounter between those two young and hungry players, Diego now ranked 7th and Fares back to nearly his best, 13th.
I feel today those two were playing the same style of game, hitting hard at the back, and finding some great winners/counterdropping in the front corners. But today, Diego was just better at it. More accurate, more patient, he forced Fares to go for too much from the middle of the games, and it was like Fares was back on the Juniors scene at times, going for too much, far too soon, ambitious shots that sometimes were just above the tin, but unfortunately, too many times, found the tin…
First game Fares was extremely physical, moving very well and matching Diego’s shot per shot. Lovely intense squash, Diego a bit frustrated, good game from both, Fares taking the opener on his third attempt, 15m, 12/10.
The next two will be on the same pattern, close up the middle of the game, then Fares being a bit tired after hard work produced, and going for too much, accumulating errors. 8/4, 11/8 in the second, 12m, third, same 8/4, 11/6 in 10m.
The last one, onesided all about Diego, 9/3 11/4 in 12m, and one way to summarise the match: Diego just too good.
Diego
“I started a bit nervously, it’s my first time in the last 16 of a World Championship. But then I started to play better, more consistent squash, and I think I did really well at the end to close it out.
“Every time it’s better, we are pretty close in the rankings, we’ve been playing all of our lives now. It’s always a tough match, so it’s hard to be pretty good friends off court, but we’re trying to be as good as we can.
“One of my goals was to make it to my first quarter-finals of the World Championship. I’m feeling great and I feel like I’m playing good squash, so I think I can go all the way.”
