By N.D. Prashant
DEFENDING champion and World No 1 Amr Shabana handed over his Qatar Classic Squash title meekly to compatriot and World No 7 Karim Darwish at the Khalifa Squash Complex yesterday. Darwish won in straight games defeat 11-4, 11-5, 11-3.
In the women’s section, however, there were no surprises. Malaysia’s wonder girl, Nicol David increased her unbeaten run to 53 matches and also completed her hat-trick at the Qatar Classic with a comprehensive 11-7, 11-3 11-9 win over World No 2 Natalie Grinham of Netherlands.
“Karim Darwish will carry forward the legacy from me,” World No 1 Shabana had predicted a few days back. And the 27-yr-old Darwish showed why he is being tipped as the future of Egyptian Squash in less than 28 minutes.
Shabana was never in the match right from the word go. The normal free-flowing shots of Shabana were missing, many shots found the tin and the deception was missing from his repertoire.
All this was a clear indication that the champion was not at his best. However, one cannot take anything away from Darwish as he had an answer to every trick that Shabana tried on court.
“I had done my homework. I know him well, come what may, he will give his best. It was just that I was greedier for this title,” said an elated Darwish, who has now jumped to the second spot in the world ranking.
Once Darwish stormed into a 6-1 lead in the first game, there was no looking back. He never allowed Shabana to regain ground and in no time won the game 11-4.
A change of tactics was expected from Shabana in the second game. He decided to slow down a bit and engaged Darwish in long rallies. However, his famed winner never worked as they were picked up well by Darwish or found the tin.
Once the second game slipped out of Shabana’s hands, he had a resigned look on his face. The third game was a mere formality for Darwish as Shabana showed no will in staging a comeback. A dejected Shabana even gave the media a skip after the prize distribution ceremony.
The women’s final, too, didn’t rise to the expectations. Malaysian supporters had turned in large numbers to cheer their icon David and she was in a real hurry to wrap up things.
A 7-1 lead in the first game was enough to let everyone know that David was at her supreme best.
She had just lost one game in her semi against Nataile Grainger of USA and looked in no mood to give Grinham even a sniff of victory in the final.
After winning the first game cheaply at 11-4, David toyed with Grinham in the second game. The Dutch ace did put up some resistance in the third but it was not enough to see her through and eventually lost the game and the match at 11-9.
“I took my chances earlier and kept the pressure on. I just didn’t want to repeat the mistake of the semis and then stage a comeback. I wanted to nail her from the start which I did,” said an overjoyed David, who has been holding on to the world No 1 spot for 27 months.
“It’s great to win the title for the third time in a row. I was fully focused today and didn’t make any errors. I want to keep working on my shots for the coming tournaments,” she added.
A visibly upset Grinham speaking after the contest said, “She (David) was in an awesome form and never allowed me to settle down. She was more determined to retain her crown here. I was struggling to keep pace with her game all through.”
Results:
Men’s final: Karim Darwish bt Amr Shabana 11-4, 11-5, 11-3; Women’s final: Nicol David bt Natalie Grinham 11-7, 11-3, 11-9.
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