Nick Matthew picks up the pace to seal semi-final spot at Windy City Open

The 35-year-old Yorkshireman came back from 2-0 down and saved three match balls when he was kept on court for more nearly two hours by Golan in the second round of the tournament on Sunday – but he escaped relatively unscathed 24 hours later when seeing off the challenge of Egypt’s Tarek Momen in the quarter-finals.

“If you can’t play for four or five days in a row then you aren’t training hard enough - it’s as simple as that,” said Matthew afterwards.

“We train harder than we play every day and if you can’t back up after a tough five-game match then you won’t get to the top.

“I got behind in that game and I told myself when I was down that it could go to five - and two five gamers in a row is tough. I dug in and pushed myself and that was very important, to get off 3-0, for the rest of the tournament.”

Matthew will face World Championship runner-up Omar Mosaad in the last four.

In the women’s draw, former World No 1 Nicol David crashed out at the hands of Egyptian Nour El Sherbini, going down 11-9, 12-10, 11-9.

By contrast, the current world No 1, Laura Massaro, made short work of Egypt’s Omneya Abdel Kawy, taking just 29 minutes to go through to the last four 11-7, 11-7, 11-9.

“You can never let your guard down at all in any match and I think in that third game I maybe switched off and was already warming down,” said Massaro.

“As a result she got back into it and it was edgy. I’m angry at myself for that. I did the same thing in the last round so I’m really happy to get off 3-0 against a very dangerous opponent and I’m really excited to be in the semi-finals.”

Results

Men’s Quarter-finals

[1] Mohamed Elshorbagy (EGY) bt [5] Simon Rösner (GER) 3-1: 11-8, 11-6, 9-11, 11-7 (53m)

[4] Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL) bt Marwan ElShorbagy (EGY) 3-0: 11-9, 11-5, 11-8 (43m)

[3] Omar Mosaad (EGY) bt [8] Mathieu Castagnet (FRA) 3-1: 11-8, 12-14, 11-8, 11-8 (84m)

[2] Nick Matthew (ENG) bt [6] Tarek Momen (EGY) 3-0: 11-4, 11-5, 13-11 (47m)

Semi-final draw:

[1] Mohamed Elshorbagy (EGY) v [4] Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL)

[3] Omar Mosaad (EGY) v [2] Nick Matthew (ENG)

Women’s Quarter-finals

[1] Laura Massaro (ENG) bt [6] Omneya Abdel Kawy (EGY) 3-0: 11-7, 11-7, 11-9 (29m)

[5] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) bt [3] Nicol David (MAS) 3-0: 11-9, 12-10, 11-9 (36m)

[4] Camille Serme (FRA) bt [7] Amanda Sobhy (USA) 3-2: 6-11, 11-4, 5-11, 12-10, 11-9 (63m)

[2] Raneem El Welily (EGY) bt [8] Nouran Gohar (EGY) 3-0: 11-8, 11-8, 11-9 (36m)

Semi-final draw:

[1] Laura Massaro (ENG) v [5] Nour El Sherbini (EGY)

[4] Camille Serme (FRA) v [2] Raneem El Welily (EGY)