Ramy Ashour beat David Palmer in a five-setter that lasted 78 minutes at the Punj Lloyd Masters at the Bombay Gymkhana Thunderdome on Tuesday. In one of the highly-anticipated matches of the tournament, the players played in front of a packed crowd.
The first set was a pretty straight forward one with Ramy winning it 11-9. Palmer seemed to be cruising in the second. He was ahead at 7-3 when things changed. And the match witnessed plenty of twists and turns. From 9-9 all the way up to the final score of 18-16, both players had plenty of chances. Palmer finally took his chance at 17-16 and pocketed the second set.
The third set was hard fought again with neither player managing to get away with lead. Palmer held on and won the third 11-9. In the fourth the Egyptian got a head start and went ahead 5-1. Palmer’s body language slumped and he hardly attempted half the shots.
The fifth set was neck and neck at 7-7 before Ramy pulled away and won it 11-8.
After the match an exhausted Ramy said, “It’s one of the toughest matches I’ve ever played. I’ll need to play more steady tomorrow if I want to beat Shabana.” He also gave credit to his 33-year old opponent by jokingly saying, “ I wanna check his id. He can’t be 33. He’s playing like a 19-year old.”
The match that was strewn with a few controversial decisions with Ramy even going down on his knees and pleading with the referees, asking them to keep their eye on the ball rather than the player. “The umpiring was a little harsh but there were calls that went against both of us,” he added. David Palmer who was the only player to have been here at the Mahindra event in 1997 was disappointed to have not won but was looking ahead to the 2010 Commonwealth games(CWG) in India.The Aussie said, “The good thing about the CWG is that there are no Egyptians but it’s still going to be tough. I have won a bronze and a silver so it would be nice to win a gold this time.”
In the first match of the day, which was a face-off between two Egyptians, Amr Shabana trumped his younger opponent Mohammad al Sharbagy in four sets 11-5 5-11 12-10 11-7. The match was high on drama and even saw Shabana needing an injury break in the third set after he was hit in the eye by his opponent’s elbow. After the break, he came back strong to close out the match in quick time.
About the time out, Shabana said, “It took the wind out of me and I lost my vision for a few minutes but it was an accident.” He also spoke about his focus saying, “after the world open I had a 15-day break. So my concentration levels are still not as high as I want them to be at.”
Results: Quarterfinals: 2-Amr Shabana (EGY) bt 12-Mohamad el Shorbagy (EGY) 11-5 5-11 12-10 11-7, 3-Ramy Ashour (EGY) bt 5-David Palmer (AUS) 11-8 16-18 9-11 11-4 11-8, 4-Nick Matthew (ENG) bt 7- Thierry Lincou (FRA) 11-8 11-7 11-4
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