Egypt’s title-holder Tarek Momen will make his second successive appearance in the final of the CIMB Malaysian Open after prevailing in today’s semi-finals of the PSA World Tour International 50 squash event at the Curve Shopping Mall in Petaling Jaya in Selangor.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old world No10 from Cairo was taking on Chris Simpson, the unseeded Englishman who was appearing in the semi-finals against expectation after upsetting top seed Karim Darwish.<\/p>\n
Momen went into the match boasting a 1\/0 career head-to-head advantage over Simpson – but it was the 26-year-old underdog who took the lead.<\/p>\n
Momen drew level, but again Simpson – ranked 15 places lower – regained the advantage after taking the third.\n<\/p>\n
The defending champion pulled out all the stops in his bid to return to the final – ultimately closing out the match 6-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-9, 11-5 after 69 minutes to reach the ninth Tour final of his career, but the first since his Curve triumph 12 months ago.<\/p>\n
“He has improved a lot and he was very sharp and his drives were glued to the wall,” said Momen, whose fianc\u00e9e Raneem El Weleily, the women’s champion, also won her semi-final match today. “Me and Raneem really scared everyone today so we will see what happens tomorrow!”<\/p>\n
Simpson added: “It’s the first competition of the season, so it’s a great start for me. I would have loved to have made the final but need to take the positives from it. I got the tactics right for four games but then I got a bit tired and my mind went – but credit to Tarek.<\/p>\n
“I would like to thank the crowd for their fantastic support this week.”<\/p>\n
The other semi-final pitted England’s No2 seed Peter Barker against third-seeded Spaniard Borja Golan.<\/p>\n
“The opening game was long and hard with Barker winning it 11-9,” reported event spokesman Andrew Cross. “At the beginning of the third, with Barker leading 3-1, Borja swung and on the follow through caught Peter on the nose causing blood to flow, and it seems Peter has fractured his nose.”<\/p>\n
The match was suspended and has been rescheduled for 9.00am local time tomorrow (Sunday).<\/p>\n
RESULTS: PSA International 50 CIMB Malaysian Open, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia<\/strong><\/p>\n Semi-finals: Egypt’s title-holder Tarek Momen will make his second successive appearance in the final of the CIMB Malaysian Open after prevailing in today’s semi-finals of the PSA World Tour International 50 squash event at the Curve Shopping Mall in Petaling Jaya in Selangor.<\/p>\n The 25-year-old world No10 from Cairo was taking on Chris Simpson, the unseeded Englishman who was appearing in the semi-finals against expectation after upsetting top seed Karim Darwish.<\/p>\n Momen went into the match boasting a 1\/0 career head-to-head advantage over Simpson – but it was the 26-year-old underdog who took the lead.<\/p>\n Momen drew level, but again Simpson – ranked 15 places lower – regained the advantage after taking the third.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-others"],"yoast_head":"\n
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[4] Tarek Momen (EGY) bt Chris Simpson (ENG) 6-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-9, 11-5 (69m)
[2] Peter Barker (ENG) v [3] Borja Golan (ESP) (match not completed)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"