Willstrop ready to face Ashour once again

The great rivals are regarded by many as being among the most stylish players on the circuit, with their Wednesday night clash in the last four of the Tournament of Champions tournament at the Grand Central Terminal eagerly-anticipated.

Barring one month, Willstrop, from Leeds, spent the whole of 2012 at the top of the PSA rankings, finding himself replaced by Ashour at the beginning of this month following an impressive end to the year for the Egyptian which culminated in him winning his second World Open title in Qatar..

Willstrop, 29, is the top seed in New York and made it through to the last four after ending the run of Stephen Coppinger, the unseeded South African who had his best PSA World Series showing with his quarter-final appearance.

The first was to prove crucial to the eventual outcome, with Willstrop being forced to go the extra yard to clinch it at 12-10. Once that had passed, the next two games were more of a formality with the Yorkshireman taking them 11-2 and 11-4 to win in 45 minutes.

“It was important to win that first game,” said the world No3. “Stephen played hard and it becomes a whole different match when you are one game down at the start.”

Ashour booked his place in the semi-finals after recovering from a slow start to hold off fellow countryman Omar Mosaad 4-11, 11-3, 12-10, 11-9 in 51 minutes.

Hoping to join Willstrop and Ashour in the last four is Sheffield’s world No 2 Nick Matthew, who takes on Egypt’s Karim Darwish – another former world No 1 – on Tuesday night.

Remarkably the two have managed to avoid each other in PSA World Tour events since the World Open in November 2011, when Matthew won in the semi-finals on his way to a second successive title.

The two were due to meet in the quarter-finals of the Kuwait Cup which followed soon after, but Matthew was forced to withdraw injured.

In 2009, Darwish was world No 1 for all but one month, but has remained in the world’s top 7 ever since, making him – as far as Matthew is concerned, one of the more dangerous quarter-final opponents.

“Karim is still capable of beating anyone on his day and is extremely dangerous,” said Matthew. “He is also very good at getting the lower-ranked players off quickly in the earlier rounds so that he always arrives at the later stages relatively fresh.”

Much to Matthew’s relief, he got the better of another Egyptian in the second round, Amr Shabana, at the third attempt this year after losing to him twice at the World Series Finals in London.

That result and his first round victory over English qualifier Joe Lee have given Matthew the confidence to believe he could go all the way in New York as he looks to retain the ToC title.

“I played great against Amr, but feel like there is still more in the tank which is positive,” added Matthew.

“It’s simply the best atmosphere anywhere on the world tour playing at Grand Central Terminal. Hundreds of thousands of people pass the court each day which gives the sport such a unique promotional tool.”