The rivals last met in the semi-finals of the British Open in May, when Matthew handed El Shorbagy - 11 years his junior - a 3-2 defeat in a 104-minute encounter, but the Egyptian claims his challenger is now "past his peak".

However, Matthew, who booked his place in the last four with a 3-0 win against four-time world champion Amr Shabana of Egypt, is ever confident of success.

"I know what to expect from Mohamed tomorrow," he said.

"He is an extremely strong player and I'll be preparing myself to deal with that.

"I'm going to enjoy the way I played tonight and then I'm going to refocus.

"I've proved that I still have the hunger to compete this week and I've not come here to end my run at the semi-finals.

"I've probably not got a million years left in these events so I'm going to try and make the most of it."

Ramy Ashour will go head to head with Grégory Gaultier in their PSA World Championship semi-final ©Getty Images


El Shorbagy, meanwhile, made it through with a 3-0 victory over South African Stephen Coppinger and is equally prepared for another win and did not hold back with the fighting talk.

"Nick looked in great form in his match today and I know he wants to break another record and become the oldest world champion," he said.

"But he made a comment before the tournament that I have only been number one for a few minutes and I think he needs to be a little bit careful.

"He likes to stand up a lot between games and my advice to him is that he should sit down and get that rest tomorrow because I'm going to play at a pace that he won't be able to handle."

The winner of their match will face either two-time world champion Ramy Ashour of Egypt or four-time runner-up Grégory Gaultier of France in the final.

The pair came through after securing victory in their matches against Australian Cameron Pilley and Spain's Borja Golán.

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