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LONDON: Amr Shabana, the squash legend who remarkably has never won a title in his sport's country of origin, moved to within one win of remedying that by reaching the showdown match of the PSA Tour's flagship event on Friday.
The four-time former world champion from Egypt did that with a 11-4, 11-5 11-5 win over compatriot Ramy Ashour in a contest between perhaps the two most talented players in the World Series finals.
Shabana, now 31, looked almost as good as ever against his eight years younger rival, though Ashour was clearly still suffering from the hamstring injury which ended his World Open hopes in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia last month.
Many of Ashour's ambushing winners were on show, but his court coverage was not, and he rarely seemed likely to slow down Shabana's rapid progress.
Instead the highlight was one moment at 10-4 in the second game when Ashour wrong-footed his rival and Shabana humorously left his racket behind in the back corner as he ran the wrong way.
"He's on his way back in spite of having injuries," said Shabana sympathetically.
"It was tough for him today. It was a question of who was feeling better. I have had a few injuries myself, so I will take this."
Shabana now has a chance of avenging himself upon the player who last month succeeded him as World Open champion, Nick Matthew, the Englishman who similarly came through in straight games against a compatriot.
Matthew meticulously carved out a 11-4, 11-6, 11-7 win over James Willstrop in a lower-key repeat of last month's fine world final.
The Christmas break appeared to have done nothing to reduce the exceptional movement of Matthew who has had the finest few months of his career, also winning two Commonwealth Games gold medals in Delhi.
Matthew established early leads in both the first two games, and kept the pace so high that Willstrop found it hard to impose his creative shot-making.
On the occasions when he did manage that Matthew defended superbly, extending the rallies and inducing errors, and eventually reducing Willstrop to something close to despair in his tenth successive loss to his fellow Yorkshireman.
"For the last two years he has been better than me," Willstrop said, hanging his head.
"It was difficult because my body just wasn't wanting to play squash tonight.
"But he is a fantastic champion and what he has done hasn't got nearly enough attention."
- AFP/de
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