More success for Pilley in Sweden

06-Feb-2010 - Squash Australia

New South Welshman Cameron Pilley recorded one of the best wins of his career when he downed former world number one Gregory Gaultier in the quarter-finals of the Swedish Open in Linkoping on Friday.
The unseeded Pilley went into the match against the third seeded Frenchman as the underdog, never having beaten Gaultier in five previous meetings.
But the 27-year-old from Yamba on the NSW north coast played some superb squash to recover from a slow start and overcome Gaultier 4-11, 11-6, 11-6, 12-14, 11-9.
"It was big nerves in the match, starting on my part, but I noticed that Gaultier was under increasing pressure from my game,” Pilley said.
“Although I lost the fourth game, which I should have brought home, I continued playing my game and it paid off -- it feels wonderful.”
Pilley now takes on top seed and world number two Nick Matthew of England in the semi-finals following Matthew’s straight games win over Canberra’s Stewart Boswell.
In a match tougher than the score suggests, Matthew downed Boswell 11-6, 11-7, 11-8.
“It was a difficult match, Stewart put up a really good fight,” the Englishman conceded later.
The second semi-final will be between recently crowned Tournament of Champions winner James Willstrop and former world number one Amr Shabana.

Quarter-final results – prefix denotes seeding:

1-Nick Matthew (ENG) bt 8-Stewart Boswell (AUS) 11-6, 11-7, 11-8
Cameron Pilley (AUS) bt 3-Gregory Gaultier (FRA) 4-11, 11-6, 11-6, 12-14, 11-9
4-James Willstrop (ENG) bt 6-Alister Walker (ENG) 11-8, 11-3, 7-11, 11-6
2-Amr Shabana (EGY) bt 5-Adrian Grant (ENG) 11-4, 9-11, 11-6, 11-5