Revenge is sweet indeed, certainly for England's Nick Matthew, who has avenged his January loss to France's Greg Gaultier in the final of the Tournament of Champions with a 14-12, 11-9, 6-11, 11-3 win after 83 minutes of high-caliber squash in tonight's second semifinal.
Matthew advances to play #3 seed Ramy Ashour of Egypt in Saturday afternoon's (3 p.m) final.
"The first game was so tough," said #8 Matthew of the 32-minute opener that firmly established the fact that he was intent on making life difficult for #4 Gaultier, who bounced back in the third game before being distracted by an ongoing dialogue with the referee.
"Greg had a few errors that I’m sure he wasn’t happy about. I had to stay focused the whole time," the winner said.
Matthew will be contesting his 4th consecutive final, a streak that includes wins at the the British Nationals and the Swedish Open. Ashour had not made a final since winning the World Open title last October in Manchester.
Matthew leads the head-to-head with the Egyptian 3-2 and has won their last two meetings. But he's far from overconfident looking ahead to Saturday's final.
"Ramy’s an incredible player. He plays fantastic shots you don’t even see sometimes."
Saturday will see the final chapter written and we'll look forward to keeping you updated throughout.
Good night from Richmond...
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