Serene Gaultier stays on course for maiden World Open title
World number one Gregory Gaultier avoided mishap either with the sandy court or with the best player ever to come out of the United States as he reached the last 16 in his bid to win the World Open for the first time.
The 26-year-old from Aix-en-Provence also produced a controlled response when Julian Illingworth, the world number 32 from new York, made a good fight-back in the third game before going down 11-3, 11-8, 8-11, 11-3.
"I have been working hard on my mental approach, which has been my main weakness," Gaultier said.
"I have been managing it better, trying to stay more calm on court, and trying to stay focused on my game."
While mental strength was unlikely ever to be a major issue against Illingworth, the serenity which the Frenchman emanated could serve him well in tougher tussles to come.
He played the fourth game at a fractionally higher pace, increased his accuracy, and was quick to pounce when there was half a chance of applying pressure or of trying for a winner.
He next plays Ong Beng Hee, the 13th seeded Malaysian, and the winner could play the in-form Nick Matthew, the fifth seeded British Open champion from England.
Gaultier might well have become deflected from his focus by the state of the court, about which Ramy Ashour - the defending world champion whom he should meet on Friday's semi-finals - expressed concern.
"We are scared to lunge in the front in case we get injured," the Egyptian claimed.
"It's the sand and it's the sweat as well - it's very hot."
Ashour played well in fits and starts while winning 12-10, 11-8, 11-3 against Omar Mosaad, a compatriot lurking just below the world's top 20.
When it mattered in the first two games the young champion found something creative with which to win the rally, though he only exploded into something like his brilliant best after getting on top in the third.
The other two front runners for the title, the top-seeded Karim Darwish and the three times former world champion Amr Shabana, also won without alarms.
Darwish dropped the second game against Saurav Ghosal, the Leeds-based Indian number one, but was fluent and accurate enough to run away with the fourth game.
Shabana, who won 11-8, 11-8, 11-6 against yet another compatriot, Omar Mosaad, was a mixture of the languid and the deceptive, and won without playing in top gear.
He, like Ashour, was all-too-aware of the heat, though he thought it would give the Egyptians an advantage over the Europeans.
"They're going to suffer tremendously and we're just going to suffer," Shabana said drolly.
Three seeds went out, the most important of them being the number six, David Palmer, the 33-year-old twice former world champion from Australia, who went down 14-12, 12-10, 11-7, to Tarek Momen, the world number 25 from Egypt.
The other two were Adrian Grant, the tenth, from England, and Mohammed Azlan Iskandar, the 12th, from Malaysia.
Grant lost in straight games to Hisham Ashour, the elder brother of titleholder Ramy, but Iskandar fought out an arduous, stressful battle with Daryl Selby, an Englishman edging towards the top 20, before giving way.
Indeed Iskandar's 11-7, 7-11, 9-11, 11-7, 11-8 defeat took two-and-a-quarter hours, a very long match by any standards, but one of the longest ever contested with the PSA Tour's five-year-old point-per-rally 11-up scoring.
