Three-time winner Nick Matthew bowed out of his final world championships with a 11-7, 11-6, 5-11, 11-6 quarter-final loss to Mohamed Elshorbagy on Thursday.
The 37-year-old Englishman, who is also the oldest player to have been ranked in the world’s top five, did well to take one game from Elshorbagy, whose physical and consistent performance showed why he is becoming regarded as unofficial favourite for the world title.
Third-seed Elshorbagy appears to have recovered from the emotional crisis that accompanied the loss of his world number one ranking earlier this year, and he maintained a breath-taking jet-propelled pace throughout the 53-minute match.
There were only small patches in each game when Matthew could not stay with him, but that was the difference between them.
“I have six months to make the most of what’s left of my career,” Matthew said.
Elshorbagy beat another three-time world champion, compatriot Ramy Ashour, in the third round, and will face Gregory Gaultier, the top-seeded Frenchman in the semi-finals.
If he captures a first world title on Sunday, he will have done so taking just about the hardest possible route.
“If someone had wanted to give me a difficult draw they couldn’t have done it better than this,” Elshorbagy said.
“But I believe in my mental strength, and my squash, and I believe I can do it.”
Earlier, Gaultier said his hopes of becoming the oldest man to win the squash world title may have been boosted more by his wife giving birth than his quarter-final victory on Thursday.
The 2015 champion’s 11-7, 11-6, 11-5 win over eighth-seeded New Zealander Paul Coll takes him to the semi-finals and two wins away from becoming the oldest champion in history.
“I was a bit tense, it was a big relief,” said Gaultier, referring to the arrival of his second son Liam, rather than to his success over Coll.
“I only had three hours sleep but now I am happy, and when I am happy I usually play well,” added the Frenchman, who will turn 35 six days after Sunday’s final.
In the women’s section, Nour El Tayeb, who became part of the first husband-and-wife duo in any sport to capture top level titles simultaneously when she and Ali Farag won the US Open in October, reached the world semi-finals for the first time.
El Tayeb won 11-9, 11-7, 11-9 against Tesni Evans, the first Welsh woman ever to reach the quarter-finals, and will next play the top-seeded Nour El Sherbini, who advanced with a 11-7, 11-3, 11-4 win over her her Egyptian compatriot Nouran Gohar.
