Harvard graduate Ali Farag shook up the $70,000 Motor City Open draw this weekend, pulling off the upset of his young career over world No. 1 Mohamed Elshorbagy in the quarterfinals, and defeating France’s world No. 9 Mathieu Castagnet to reach the largest final of his career Monday night, where he faces world No. 3 Nick Matthew at the Birmingham Athletic Club in Detroit.
The twenty-three-year-old world No. 22 was facing Elshobagy in just their second encounter on the PSA Tour Saturday, and handed the reigning world No. 1 his first loss since November 6-11, 11-9, 11-7, 8-11, 11-6 in sixty-six minutes.
“It’s one of the bigger wins of my career,” Farag said afterwards. “To beat the world number one is a huge thing. He was dominating the first game and a half. I changed my plan a bit, and thankfully it worked.”
On Sunday, the Egyptian continued his impressive form against Castagnet, whom he last defeated as a qualifier in the 2010 El Gouna Open, taking out the three seed 12-10, 9-11, 11-4, 11-9 in sixty-one minutes.
Farag now takes on former world No. 1 Nick Matthew for the first time in his career in a match up between the youngest and oldest players in the draw Monday night at 6pm ET.
Matthew is making his seventieth-career PSA Tour final appearance after a four-game semifinal defeat over 2009 Motor City Open champion Borja Golan.
For full tournament coverage and live scores, visit www.themotorcityopen.com and U.S. Pro Series Live.