Fares Dessouky (EGY) 3-0 Saurav Ghosal (IND) 11-6, 11-5, 11-5 (42m)
I know Fares said he was nervous but it didn’t show I feel. He was oozing with confidence, he appeared relaxed and with no pressure at all. After all, he just had a great win against Simon 3/1 in the traditional court, he is WR14 while Saurav is 11, and he won their three encounters.
As ever, Saurav fought to the end, and the rallies were long and intense, length of matches 11m, 15 in the second and last one 13m. They played at a fast pace, but with Saurav a bit on the backfoot, not really able to impose his game today I felt.
Saurav felt he was treated unfairly by the ref, and he was more and more frustrated as the match went along…
Still, a pretty high standard match, very few errors, three only for Saurav, and 1 in the first game for Fares. He only started a few errors 2/0 up and 9/2 in the third, two in a row, but quickly reassessed before Saurav got too confident, and it’s 11/5…
Fares
I played really well. Saurav is one of the trickiest players on tour, so I had to be focused for the whole match and play very solid and I’m happy to be through.
“I was a little bit nervous in the beginning of the match, even before the match because I have come here since I was young. I remember watching [Ahmed] Barada playing here and so I came here once – it was a dream and it came true.
“Playing against Paul will be a really tough match, he has been improving the last couple of months, so it won’t be an easy match. It will be a long one and I need to not miss a point.”
