(updated 16-jan-10 20:58 )  

SALAZAR KNOCKS OUT GALIFI;
The Zantrex-3 ity 4200 ft (1280 metres).

The quarterfinals Zantrex-3 International Professional Squash Tournament were held thursday evening with four very entertaining matches.

The first match of the night ended in an upset with Cesar Salazar of Mexico taking down the number one seed Stephane Galifi from Italy. Clearly, Salazar was more comfortable on the Salt Lake City courts than Galifi. Throughout the match, Galifi was having trouble keeping up with pace. The match went back and forth with each player alternating games. The final score: 5-11, 11-4, 11-9, 7-11, 11-6 (71 minutes).

The second match of the evening was a really long match between Max Lee of Hong Kong and Bernardo Samper of Columbia. Lee prevailed 3-2 in 70 minutes. The second game was the game of the tournament so far with Samper prevailing 18-16. During the game no player was able to gain more a two point advantage. Samper seemed to have full control of the match when he also took game 3, 11-7, to go up 2-1 in games; however, to Lee's credit he fought back and won the next two games and the match: 11-8, 16-18, 7-11, 11-7, 11-8 (70 minutes)

The third match saw Gregoire Marche from France beat Christopher Gordon of the USA in 27 minutes. Marche used his quickness and athleticism to keep Gordon behind the pace all match. The second game was very close, tied at 9-9, but an unlucky bounce for Gordon followed by a careless tin left the American in a big hole down two games. He never recovered and Marche moved impressively into the semi finals: 11-4, 11-9, 11-3 (27 minutes).

The final match of the night saw the young Brazilian qualifier Manoel Pereira dismantled by the number two seed Jan Koukal from the Czech Republic. Koukal, a very smooth and deceptive player, forced Pereira to work extremely hard to stay in the rallies. Pereira was game but he was still feeling the stress of his first round upset of Dick Lau. Koukal smartly kept the rallies going without making errors. The final score: 11-4, 11-6, 11-5 (33 minutes).

The Friday night semi-finals are now set:

Cesar Salazar vs. Max Lee and Gregoire Marche vs. Jan Koukal