Matthew rushes through to next round of World Championships

The 35-year-old, from Sheffield, was in unstoppable form at the Meydenbauer Center, in Bellevue, Washington, reeling off the first game 11-2.
There was more of a contest in the second game as his Egyptian opponent matched Matthew’s efforts, but the Yorkshireman was able to close that out 11-8, before taking the third game 11-4 to wrap up victory in just 38 minutes.

He will now meet Marwan Elshorbagy in the last 16 on Thursday night.

Elsewhere, fellow three-time winner Ramy Ashour also enjoyed a straight games win, overcoming fellow Egyptian Mohamed Abouelghar (Egy) 11-8, 11-9, 11-7 after just 37 minutes on court.

The day started with a big upset as Gregoire Marche came through an 88-minute five-setter to beat 16th seed Steve Coppinger, to make it three Frenchman in the last sixteen [joining Gregory Gaultier and Mathieu Castagnet] for the first time since 2003.

That was the only upset of the day, but Borja Golan, Tarek Momen, Mawan Elshorbagy and Karim Abdel Gawad were made to work hard for their three-nil wins while Omar Mosaad had to fight back from one-two down to end the challenge of Nafiizwan Adnan.

“I have Marwan waiting for me next round, and that’s going an incredibly hard match,” said Matthew. “I didn’t want to mess about today.”

“I thought Karim did very well today, he is pretty quick. I know he had a 100-minute match two days ago and it’s never easy to back that up, especially after coming from a traditional court on to the glass court.

“You have to manage your energy so well throughout because your playing six matches hopefully.

“It’s a long week and you don’t have much downtime on your own in your hotel room so you’ve got to maximise that but, at the same time, you have to be very good at getting out of that relaxed mode.

“In the world championship, if you want to do well, there’s always one day where you just have to dig it out and win ugly and I’m prepared to do that if necessary.

Results, World Championships, Round Two (bottom half)

[4] Ramy Ashour (EGY) bt Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY) 11-8, 11-9, 11-7 (37m)

[12] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) bt Cesar Salazar (MEX) 11-7, 11-3, 14-12 (37m)

[14] Borja Golan (ESP) bt Paul Coll (NZL) 11-9, 13-11, 11-5 (55m)

[7] Omar Mosaad (EGY) bt Nafiizwan Adnan (MAS) 11-7, 10-12, 4-11, 11-8, 11-1 (75m)

[8] Tarek Momen (EGY) bt Diego Elias (PER) 11-6, 11-1, 17-15 (43m)

Gregoire Marche (FRA) bt [15] Stephen Coppinger (RSA) 6-11, 11-4, 11-8, 3-11, 11-7 (88m)

[10] Marwan Elshorbagy (EGY) bt Daryl Selby (ENG) 11-7, 11-5, 13-11 (61m)

[2] Nick Matthew (ENG) bt [Q] Karim El Hammamy (EGY) 11-2, 11-8, 11-4 (38m)

Third round draw (Thursday)

[1] Mohamed Elshorbagy (EGY) v James Willstrop (ENG)

[5] Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL) v [9] Mathieu Castagnet (FRA)

[6] Simon Rösner (GER) v Ali Farag (EGY)

[3] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) v Karim Ali Fathi (EGY)

[4] Ramy Ashour (EGY) v [12] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY)

[7] Omar Mosaad (EGY) v [14] Borja Golan (ESP)

[8] Tarek Momen (EGY) v Gregoire Marche (FRA)

[2] Nick Matthew (ENG) v [10] Marwan Elshorbagy (EGY)