Amr Shabana reminded us why he has been the dominant figure of world squash in recent years by convincingly taking the squash world open final in Kuwait yesterday. Shabana who held the world number one spot for thirty three months before being ousted by Karim Darwish earlier this year, took the 2009 world open trophy only dropping one game in the process to Englishman James Willstrop.
Ramy Ashour
Shabana defeated his Egyptian compatriot Ramy Ashour in the final in Kuwait 3-0, without giving the twenty-two year old a chance to settle. Ashour, entertaining and phenomenally talented with the racket, won the world squash open in Manchester last year, but was prevented from imposing his attacking style of play in the final this time round.
Ashour by no means played a poor game, but was constrained by a complete display from Shabana, in which the elder Egyptian seemed to find the tighter angles and was moving incredibly well again following the knee problems he suffered towards the end of last season.
Shabana, like many Egyptians, is often hailed for his offensive qualities, yet it is worth mentioning his great retrieving ability, especially in his semi-final with James Willstrop, where the Egyptian found himself on the back foot for a period in the third and fourth games, but showed resilience to weather the Englishman’s onslaught and come out on top.
Squash World Number One Spot
At this moment in time the PSA tour appears to be hugely competitive, making it hard to pick out a favourite from a pool of possibly 5 or 6 players arriving at any given squash tournament. Newly crowned squash world number one Gregory Gaultier fully deserves his position after showing great consistency on the PSA tour recently, however will be looking over his shoulder at the in-form Amr Shabana. The “Prince” of squash appears to be hungry again having taken the US Open and the Hong Kong squash titles and he will looking to reclaim his place at the top. Should the 30-year-old stay fit, then it will be hard to stop him.
English Squash
English squash remains strong with three English players reaching the quarter finals (Nick Matthew, James Willstrop and Peter Barker). Matthew was very competitive but eventually lost in 5 sets to world number one Gregory gaultier, playing what he described was a “rubbish 5th game,” and Matthew later remarked on twitter, “pretty disappointed has to be the understatement of the year.” Willstrop reached the semi-finals, arguably pushing Shabana harder than anyone else in a close fought match. The Yorkshireman was disappointed, but has every reason to be optimistic and recently commented “I can compete with the world’s best”.
We next look ahead to the Coronation London followed by the Squash Qatar Classic.
