Favourite is next in line for Willstrop

James Willstrop. Picture supplied by squashpics.com

JAMES WILLSTROP will head into today’s world championship showdown with top seed Mohamed Elshorbagy buoyed by a “tough” win over India’s Saurav Ghosal.

The 32-year-old former world No 1, from Harrogate, secured a comfortable 3-0 win over his former Pontefract team-mate at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington.

He now lines up against Egypt’s world No 1 Elshorbagy later today for a place in the quarter-finals.

“Saurav’s been in great form,” said Willstrop, who is still on the comeback after undergoing surgery.

“I haven’t really got a lot of those tough matches under my belt so I’m absolutely chuffed to bits to be able to put that together like that really.

“You forget how to do it a little bit and you’ve got to relearn it which I’ve been doing for a few months now and it came together against Saurav.”

Elsewhere, there was dismay for Harr0gate-based Chris Simpson, who suffered a first round exit at the hands of 15th seed Stephen Coppinger, the South African winning  11-9, 11-7, 11-4.