Sweden Update: Gawad Takes Out Selby to Reach Final

#PSAWorldTour

There will be a new name etched on the UCS Swedish Open trophy after Egyptian World No.9 Karim Abdel Gawad saw off England’s Daryl Selby in straight games – setting up a final encounter with compatriot Tarek Momen in the final in Linköping.

Both players went head-to-head in an extremely tight opening game with only two points in it as Gawad crept to the win.

Some superb shots from Gawad enabled the man from Alexandria to build up a strong lead in the second and he doubled his advantage after Selby appeared to be struggling with his movement. An inordinate amount of unforced errors from Gawad let Selby back into the fixture in the third and final game but the 24-year-old did just enough to close the match out with an 11-9, 11-4, 11-8 margin of victory to advance to his maiden PSA M70 final.

“I’m very happy to get through to the final, it’s a great feeling,” said Gawad.

“It’s my first time to reach the final of an M70 tournament so I’m really happy with this and hopefully I can achieve more than just reaching the final. During the second game I felt that he wasn’t going for many balls. I thought that the third would be the same but he started to move better so I found myself 6-4 down.

“I had to refocus and try to play as if he wasn’t suffering from anything. Hopefully it is nothing serious.

“Tomorrow will be a tough match. Tarek is one of my best friends on the tour, we’ve been playing at the same club for seven years so tomorrow will be a good match.

“I don’t think it will make much difference that Tarek played a long match today [against Simon Rösner]. Yesterday it was the other way round so I think we will be physically equal tomorrow. It will be a close match.”

Result – Semi-Final: UCS Swedish Open 2016
[2] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) bt [5] Daryl Selby (ENG) 3-0: 11-9, 11-4, 11-8 (42m)