By N.D. Prashant
Hot favourite and World Open Champion Ramy Ashour of Egypt suffered a knee injury on court and was eventually knocked out of the Qatar Squash Classic by eight seed Thierry Lincou of France 6-11, 12-10, 11-6, 10-12, 11- 3 in a tense battle at the Khalifa Squash Complex yesterday.
Top seed Amr Shabana, however lived up to his reputation, and showed some awesome display of squash to brush aside the challenge from 10th seed Peter Barker of England 11-8, 11-6, 11-6.
A repeat of World Open semi-final line-up between Ashour and Shabana is what one expected after yesterday's matches. However, it wasn't to be.
Ashour did make a positive start by winning the first game with ease against the Frenchman at 11-6. Leading 9-7 in the second, he hurt his knee while stretching for a measured drop from Lincou. For a brief period, he was seen hobbling in pain but still decided to continue.
It was clear, all was not well with Ashour, as he just went through his motions and eventually squandered the advantage to lose the game 12-10 in tie-break.
A three-minute injury time break after that did very little to help Ashour's cause. He lost the third game without offering much resistance at 6-11. In the fourth game, however, the World No 4 showed his immense fighting qualities and won in tie-break, after saving a match ball of Lincou. With Ashour gaining in confidence, Lincou raised his game in the decider and once he took a 6-3 lead, he did not let it slip.
"I'm sad about his injury. I know it is hard to stay in focus after that. However, I have to cash on to this win now," said Lincou, who had won the Qatar Classic in 2004.
Coming back to the earlier match, though the scores suggest that Shabana had an easy rout over his Brit rival, it wasn't the case. Barker did everything that he could to pin his much superior opponent but the Egyptian always had an answer to the former's guile.
Some of the winners of Shabana left the spectators enthralled. Worth watching was the reverse hit that he pulled out between his legs, while running behind, to steal a winner in the third game.
This got everyone on their feet giving clear indication that the World No 1 has not lost his sheen a wee bit despite losing his World Open title recently.
Thereafter, a resigned Barker offered very little resistance and eventually lost the game and match at 11-6.
"These shots you cannot plan. They just come up spontaneously but yes, I used to try them when I was young," said Shabana, who is holding on to his World No1 ranking for 31st month.
In another match played late in the evening, seventh seed Nick Mathew of England registered a hard fought win over fourth seed David Palmer of Australia 11-3, 11-9, 10-12, 13-15, 11-6. |
