[4] Karim Abdel Gawad (Egy) 3-1 Kareem El Torkey (Egy) 7-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-2 (44m)
From a game behind, fourth seed Gawad confirms his spot in the quarter-finals.
Last season wasn’t his best because he was dealing with some back injuries, but the way I saw him training this pre-season, he’s back in good shape and injury-free.
I hope he keeps it that way and stays healthy, because he’s one of the few athletes I’ve seen with this kind of movement. I think him and Dimitri, Paul Coll, there are very few people like that. They’re very athletic, and there are a few other good movers on court, but the athleticism I’ve seen in him is just ridiculous.
Going on to today’s match, I knew how hungry he is, how much he wants to improve and push further up the rankings. He did very well at the London Classic, beating top players. He’s already a top player himself, but I mean other top players. Then in this tournament he’s been playing very well, and he beat Aly Abou Eleinen yesterday, which was such a good match.
So today I came on court focusing on trying to play good squash, limit his hunger on court, and break his rhythm as much as possible. I tried to play a good basic game, which I didn’t start well in the first game.
Until the middle of the second game, he dominated and controlled, and I just tried to dig in as much as possible. From the middle of the second game, I found myself one-love down, 4-1 or 4-2 down, so I wanted to push him back a little. He was the one attacking better, so I didn’t want to attack as much as he was. I tried to focus on putting him at the back as much as possible and then getting the winners from his attacking shots. And it eventually worked.
