Endurance World Open Final

 [1] Amr Shabana (Egy) bt [2] Gregory Gaultier (Fra)
          11/7 11/4, 11/6 (42m)

Shabana makes it three

If Gregory Gaultier turned in a masterclass last night in the semi-finals, tonight it was Amr Shabana's turn as the Egyptian world number one claimed his third world title with a performance he himself acclaimed as "the best I've ever played."

It didn't start that well, as Gaultier got the better of the early exchanges to establish a 4/1 lead. But Shabana steadied and took the next seven points, starting to show some of his shots.

He took the lead, after 18 minutes, and in the second showed the packed crowd his full arsenal, needing just eight minutes to double that lead.

And so it continued. Shabana quickly went 4-1 up in the third, Gaultier got one back then contributed three tins to go 7-2 down. It looked like the Frenchman was finished, his head gone.

There followed a mad, scrambling rally and Shabana, who was flying all over court desperately retrieving, was given a let which drew boos from the crowd. This seemed to fire Greg up, and although he was never likely to close that gap, he made the final few points tough for the soon-to-be three time champion.

The match ended as Shabana despatched the ball to die in the back right corner. There was no great show of emotion, just raised arms and then an emotional hug with his opponent.

He won Saudi, he won Qatar, he won Hong Kong, he won the Arab Championships. Now, just ix weeks after Saudi he's won the World Open for the third time. He deserves a rest ...

"He surprised me at the start, he got into the lead so I had to get back to basics, hitting it straight and cutting out his angles. I got back to 4-all and he got a bit nervous and made a few errors.

"In the second I played like a dream, you only play like that once or twice in your life and thank God I was able to do that tonight.

"This is one of my best matches ever, I don't think I've ever played better than that. I had to play that well to beat Gregory Gaultier, he's won all his matches 3/0 easily and he's 99% unbeatable.

"I know how Greg feels. He beat me in front of my home crowd in Cairo last year, I know exactly what it's like. I don't see myself beating him too many times in the future and he'll get his hands on this trophy one day for sure.

"I was blown away the first time I came to Bermuda, the island, the way they treat the players, the spectators, the organisation, it's a model of how every squash tournament should be."

"I'm very disappointed. I didn't expect to be feeling 100kg overweight, my legs felt heavy after four points, and after that trying to get in front I was forcing my shots and they were coming out loose.

"He played well tonight, I tried to stay with the pace but it just wasn't my day. Even if I wasn't feeling the best I still tried my hardest.

"I felt a lot of pressure on the match, I don't think I should have lost it last year in Cairo so maybe I put too much pressure on myself to win this one, I expected to win this tournament.

"But I have, like, eight years, so I hope I can get my hands on at least one …"

10/12, 11/6, 12/10, 11/5 (64m)

Thierry
Lincou

11/6, 3/11, 11/5, 11/5 (67m)
 

David
Palmer

11/7 11/4, 11/6 (42m)

Gregory
Gaultier

11/5, 11/4, 11/4 (41m)

Alex
Gough

11/8, 11/6, 11/4 (60m)

James Willstrop

1/6, 11/4, 11/8 (58m)

 Gregory
Gaultier

12/10, 11/6, 11/5 (55m)

 Gregory
Gaultier

Qualifying:

Finals 24-Nov:

Alister Walker (Eng) bt Miguel Rodriguez (Col)       11/5, 11/9, 11/9 (45m)
Eric Galvez (Mex) bt Ryan Cuskelly (Aus)               11/9, 11/8, 11/8 (56m)
Bradley Ball (Eng) bt Yasser El Halaby (Egy)           11/3, 11/3, 11/3 (25m)
Shawn Delierre (Can) bt Scott Arnold (Aus)            12/10, 11/5, 5/11, 7/11, 11/5 (77m)
Julian Illingworth (Usa) bt Omar Elborolossy (Egy) 11/8, 11/5, 11/7 (48m)
Jonathan Kemp (Eng) bt Kashif Shuja (Nzl)             7/11, 11/4, 11/2, 5/11, 11/4 (43m)
Omar Mosaad (Egy) bt Saurav Ghosal (Ind)             11/5, 9/11, 9/11, 11/4, 11/6 (67m)
Daryl Selby (Eng) bt Omar Abdel Aziz (Egy)             11/4, 11/7, 13/11 (56m)

Qualifying Round One:

Alister Walker (Eng)                                             bye
Miguel Angel Rodriguez (Col) bt Nick Kyme (Ber)  11/5, 11/8, 11/3 (24m)
Eric Galvez (Mex) bt Melrindo Caines (Ber)             11/0, 11/2, 11/5 (15m)
Ryan Cuskelly (Aus) bt Matthew Giuffre (Can)         12/10, 11/9, 11/5 (48m)

Bradley Ball (Eng) bt Chris Gordon (Usa)                11/5, 11/4, 11/5 (28m)
Yasser El Halaby (Egy) bt Morten Sorensen (Den)  11/9, 11/5, 7/11, 11/9 (42m)
Scott Arnold (Aus) bt  Liam Kenny (Irl)                  11/9, 11/5, 7/11, 11/9 (42m)
Shawn Delierre (Can) bt Jesse Engelbrecht (Rsa)    11/8, 11/8, 10/12, 7/11, 11/9 (69m)

Julian Illingworth (Usa) bt Patrick Foster (Irl)        11/6, 11/4, 11/8 (35m)
Omar Elborolossy (Egy) bt Julien Balbo (Fra)        11/6, 11/5, 8/11, 11/7 (62m)
Kashif Shuja (Nzl) bt Chase Toogood (Ber)            11/6, 11/6, 11/3 (24m)
 Jonathan Kemp (Eng)                                          bye

Saurav Ghosal (Ind) bt Dick Lau (Hkg)                  11/4, 11/3, 11/5 (24m)
Omar Mosaad (Egy) bt Joe Chapman (Bvi)             11/2, 11/5, 11/7 (18m)
Omar Abdel Aziz (Egy) bt Bernardo Samper (Col)  11/4, 11/9, 11/9 (31m)
Daryl Selby (Eng)                                                 bye

STOP PRESS 20-Nov:
Ramy Ashour, Karim Darwish and Stacey Ross (qual) withdraw injured - redraw.
Borja Golan also out, so Adrian Grant is 16th seed, Joey Barrington moves into main draw