Shabana Day On Vancouver's North Shore
by Paul Marley
January 16, 2012 - Amr Shabana claimed his first title at his first Comfort Inn Open presented by the Evergreen Squash Club and the Province of British Columbia/ Hosting BC at the Evergreen Squash Club on Vancouver’s North Shore.
Of course this is a habit that Shabana has formed since joining the tour in 2005. In the 71 tournaments played to date he has won 19 for a winning percentage of 27%. Not too shabby.
And his domination over his very creative and popular opponent, fellow Egyptian Hisham Ashour, who was a finalist in the 2011 Comfort Inn Open, remains complete as this is the eighth time in eight meetings that Shabana has defeated Ashour in PSA Tour play.
But the path to victory was not easy.
In the first game, Shabana built a 4-1 lead only to see Ashour draw even at 4-4. Shabana went ahead to a 6-4 lead only to see Ashour take the next five points to lead 9-6 and eventually win 11-7. Both players seemed slightly tentative as they committed two unforced errors each.
Then in the second game Shabana again built a substantial lead – 5-1 - only to see Ashour get close at 6-7 but could never close the gap and the game was Shabana’s 11-9 and the match was all tied.
The third game was all Shabana’s as Ashour committed seven unforced errors to Shabana’s one unforced error for a relatively easy 11-7 win. It’s hard to give a world class champion like Shabana an effective 6 point lead and expect to win. It’s too big a handicap.
The fourth and final game, much against the gallery’s will who were desperately hoping for a fifth, saw only a one unforced error difference between them – two for Ashour and one for Shabana. Was that the difference in the 12-10 nail-biting win for Shabana or was it the enormous pressure he was constantly putting on Ashour? I’ll leave that to better squash minds than mine.
Either way it was a hard fought, much deserved win for Shabana. As documented earlier, he started the tournament on shaky grounds as he almost lost a first round match to the 2010 Champion, Martin Knight and suffered a bagel along the way. Maybe that provided much needed motivation but as as the tournament progressed he seemed to gain momentum and confidence in his game and emerged a winner for the second consecutive week.
A great start to the 2012 season and he has served notice to his younger compatriots that there is no room for them at the top of the squash pyramid at this time. They will have to wait their turn and stay patient.
The final results:
(1) Amr Shabana(EGY) def (2) Hisham Mohd Ashour (EGY) 7-11; 11-9; 11-7; 12-10 in 50 mins.
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