Shorbagy causes another World Championships upset

Mohamed El Shorbagy, the young Egyptian who caused a World Championship upset in the 2012 semi-finals, pulled another surprise out of the hat in this year's quarter-finals on Friday. El Shorbagy did that by beating James Willstrop, the third-seeded former world number one from England, by three games to one, resisting a dangerous fourth game surge by the Yorkshireman which had started noisily to engage a partisan home crowd. And it was Willstrop whom El Shorbagy beat in 2012 in Doha, carrying him to a final in which he came only three points from becoming a long odds world champion. "It's not over yet," El Shorbagy said after a 12-10, 11-6, 2-11, 11-6 triumph in which he came back from 7-9 down with four points in a row, concluding the match on a penalty point. "I am just hoping I can do a little bit better," he added, meaning better than last year, rather than better than ending with a semi-final place this year. "I just want to go three points further than before." To do that he will have to beat the winner of Gregory Gaultier, the second-seeded Frenchman, and Daryl Selby, the 13th seeded Englishman. But El Shorbagy has already enlisted some home support for that tussle - firstly by generous words about his opponent, and secondly by advertising the strength of his English connections. "I just want to congratulate James," the canny 22-year-old said. "He will be having a baby in a few days time. Going backwards and forwards between Leeds and here each day - no-one can do that. "I want to congratulate him on playing as well as he did. He had so much going on in his head." He got a round of applause for that, and another for telling them that he has lived in England for eight years and for requesting their support. He already has that of Jonah Barrington, the Anglo-Irish winner of six British Open titles who coaches him on the phone and who, Shorbagy claims, "knows exactly what is going on inside my head". It was a match of unpredictable phases. Willstrop fell below his usual standards of accuracy in the first two games, and then risked many more attacks in the third game and built some momentum from them. He continued to progress more patchily in the fourth, during which Shorbagy needed a ten-minute tome out to flow the blood from a cut on his knee which, if repeated, would have caused him to forfeit that game. But the fine forehand drop which took Willstrop to 9-7 and within sight of a deciding game, was his last flourish. "At that stage I went for it," said Shorbagy. "I just had to because he was playing so well. I knew I had to win that game - I didn't want a fifth game," he said. He was though helped by Willstrop, who uncharacteristically put a drop shot down, then played a cross court which was comfortably cut off, before playing a drive too close to his own body on match point and conceding the fateful penalty stroke. Source: AFP