Ashour Beats Shabana 11-9 In The Fifth To Make $60K Toronto Final
by Chris Hollow
March 1, 2012
Gregory Gaultier wins 3-2 over Karim Darwish (4-11, 11-9, 11-4, 7-11 11-9) 32m
The first match of the evening at The Cambridge Cup main venue saw The Flying Frenchman, Gregory Gaultier, take on Karim Darwish of Egypt. Currently ranked 3rd and 4th respectively in the World Rankings, this match would put on display the contrasting styles of two of the best players in the world today. Somewhat well-measured off the top, the Egyptian Prince would never really let Gaultier find his groove in the first. Combining brilliant holds with penetrating length, Darwish would push the Frenchmen to the back repeatedly. It was 7-2 before Gaultier appeared to find any sort of rhythm on the court and he game-ball down at 10-4 when Darwish would punish a missed cross-court kill by Gaultier, the ball dying perfectly into the back corner. Game to Darwish 11-4 (7m)
Game two opened up in rapid-fire fashion. Darwish pounded the serve cross-court into the front right for winner for 1-0. Gaultier would finish the next rally with his patented backhand cross-court kill from the front left, the ball dying into the right nick before the service line. Darwish service return winner 2-1. Gaultier replies with his own service return winner 2-2. Gaultier fired away accurate front-court attacks up to a 6-4 lead. A gravity-drop cross-court nick from Gaultier had Darwish lunging into the corner in futility. Darwish responded with a deadly head-fake forehand drive that would send Gaultier the wrong way, smiling as he walked to receive the next server. Kill shots a plenty took us to 9-9 but two consecutive errors by Darwish would hand the game to Gaultier 11-9 (5m)
Game three was a fire-power display, each player going for spectacular kills, almost trying to one-up the other. Gaultier would fall behind 1-3 before burying consecutive dead-nick kills to pull even at 5-5. Two Darwish errors followed by two perfect cross-court drops by Gaultier would put the Gaul ahead by 8-3. It would seem that the Frenchman could not miss a nick in this game and quickly ran the score to 10-3. Darwish would fire one last volley in the battle, hammering a dead-nick off the serve but would fall 11-4 on the next point. (4m)
Karim Darwish, under the gun at 2-1 down in games, made his stand and came out firing in game four. He'd smash a Gaultier Philadelphia serve into the cross-court right nick, sending a message to the Frenchman that he came to play. Gaultier called one of his shots 'not-up' on a double-hit off side wall. "Yes let," announced Referee Wayne Smith. "You'll give me a let on that? Ok." Gaultier would chuckle as he passed Darwish the ball. Gaultier missed would mis-play a 'tweener' on the dead-run to allow Darwish to draw even at 5-5. Darwish would roll with a sense of urgency from this point. He'd put his best-in-the-business forehand straight-drop on display, in one rally employing the hold-drop three shots in a row. The hold so severe, the shot so accurate, Gaultier could only bend over and watch flat-footed as the third drop found the nick. Darwish would pull away here, winning an absolutely barn-burning rally at 9-5. Winner, winner, game to Darwish 11-9 (6m)
Darwish fired two rolling kills to open game five up 2-0. A lethal head-fake drive would put him ahead 3-1.The Frenchman would pull back to 2-3 with a wicked hold-and-drop of his own. Stroke to Gaultier leveled the game at 4-4. Darwish would fall behind but give a fist-pump after grinding out a grueling rally to move to 6-7. The epic rally that followed would move Darwish back into a 7-7 tie and have the Frenchmen asking the crowd if there was nurse on premises. "Yeah, his name's George!" The look on his face would betray that that was not exactly what he had in mind. Welcome to the Cambridge Club, Mr. Gaultier. Not wanting to make any mistakes at this critical juncture, Gaultier squeezed the next two points with air-tight drives clinging to the side-wall, much to the chagrin of Karim Darwish. And how else would Gregory Gaultier finish a match but with a head-fake cross-drop that died into the front left nick. Game to Gaultier 11-9 (10m)
Ramy Ashour wins 3-2 over Amr Shabana (9-11, 11-5, 10-12, 11-8, 11-9) 39m
The second and final match of the evening would be an all-Egyptian affair pitting young gun Ramy Ashour against one of the the elder statesmen of squash, four-time World Open winner, Amr Shabana. Number one in the world for the bulk of 2010, a hamstring injury sidelined Ashour and he has fallen to number four in the world rankings. Looking fit and hungry, Ramy took the court against his friend and mentor, looking to punch his ticket to Thursday's Final.
The contestants would feel each other out for the first few points of game one. At 3-4, Shabana put a wall-paper drop on Ramy, so tight that even the young phenom could not scrape it off. Ramy would put his stamp on the court with his trademark crosscourt kill roll-out to even up at 5-5. Shabana would pull out to a 9-6 lead in after a rally that saw an amazing display of retrieval from the 24 year-old Ashour. Youthful legs just weren't enough however as Shabana "The Magician" would finish the rally with beautiful finishing crosscourt kill. The game would end 11-9 Shabana on a backhand drop from Ramy that was a little too tight, clipping the top of the tin. (6m)
Ramy would open game two with a brilliant combination at 1-0. He dragged Shabana into the front-left with an attacking volley and pounced on the loose shot he forced, acing Shabana with volley Philadelphia to back right. Amazing stuff. The point played at 4-2 featured 10 consecutive cross-court drops, each player feeding the ball closer into the nick than the last. Shabana would eventually win the cat-and-mouse game with dead nick in the front left. Gerry Dee looked bemused from behind his slice of chocolate mousse cake. Ramy would be fortunate to win an extremely tough, one-sided rally at 6-3 that had him back-wall boasting onto a waiting Shabana's racquet, only have Shabana's volley-cross clip the tape on the high side wall. Seemingly inspired, it was all Ramy from there, save the one amazing fake executed by Shabana that's worth noting. The southpaw charged into the front-right, took a huge backhand cut at the ball, only to completely but fan on it and, in the same motion, 360 and catch the ball blindly for a trickle-boast. These guys are good. Game to Ashour 11-5 (5m)
Ramy was late coming back on to court for game three and left a jet stream of A535 in his wake as he did. This game would feature huge attacks, both players relentlessly pushing the ball into the forward reaches of the court. 1-1 would quickly turn into 4-4. Another cross-drop rally would ensue, this time ending with a Ashour tin to got to 5-6. At 7-7, Shabana would fire a down-the-middle drive over his own shoulder in an attempt to hand-cuff Ramy. There's not many players in the world that could react in time but somehow Ashour would spring out of the way and cut the ball deep, leaving a dismayed Shabana pinned to the front wall. At 8-8 Shabana entertained the crowd by executing a letter-perfect drop with his right hand and swapping back to his left to crush the defensive cross Ramy would put on his racquet. After two lets a 9-9, Shabana would scrape a 12-10 victory in the game (10m)
Ashour would come out firing in game four and quickly move out to a 7-3 lead. After winning the particularly hard rally, Ashour would look over at a hunched-over Shabana and announce "It's over!", the gamesmanship delighting the crowd. Shaba attempted to show why you let sleeping dogs lie and clawed back to striking distance at 6-9. Shabana gave us a hearty fist-pump after drawing to 9-7 on a hard-fought and well-earned point. But Ashour wasn't done. He ran the score up to 10-7 and closed it out 11-8, in spite of an amazing Shabana service return winner in the meantime. (8m)
Game five opened up in the Arms Race fashion that everyone had come here tonight expecting to see. Ramy fired 1-2-3-4 winners on the trot to jump out to a 4-0 lead. Not to be out-done, Shabana would fire an attacking salvo back, leveling the game at 4-4. Perhaps fatigue began to set in to Shabana's 32 year-old legs as he made a couple of crucial errors while taking the ball in just a little too tight. 8-5 Ashour. A poor error by Ramy would allow Amr back in at 7-8. Shabana guess right on the next point and poach-volleyed a crushing forehand winner down the line behind Ashour to move to 8-8. Shabana clipped the ball while 'coming around' in an attempt to show he could reach it but his play was interpreted by Referee Smith as a mis-hit. "Let Please" requested. "No Let" received. "You finally got that call right," quipped Ashour. 9-8 Ramy. The young Egyptian kept Shabana off balance for the next three points with his deceptive attacks, finishing the highly entertaining match with an 11-9 victory in game five (12m).
First Round (quarters):
Amr Shabana wins 3-1 over Hisham Ashour (11-4, 11-7, 2-11, 11-9) 36m
The opening match of the 2012 Cambridge Cup went off with a bang, pitting friends and countrymen Hisham Ashour against Amr Shabana in what would be a highly entertaining kick-off to the tournament. The venerable Randy Klein cut the ribbon on the tournament with his player introductions, along with the help of local boy and fellow self-anointed Supreme Squash Council member Shahier Razik. Without further ado, the combatants entered the ring to square off.
Game one started off at an unexpectedly measured pace with the players feeling out both the court and their opponent. At 1-1 Shabana fooled a left-wall poach by Ashour with a clever down-the-middle drive that left Hisham standing on the left side with his racquet up, looking over his shoulder at the ball dying into the back wall. After pulling out ahead, Shabana was put through a grueling rally with Hisham's deceptions forcing him into five consecutive back wall boasts. Hisham would finish with a spectacular cross-court forehand kill to pull back to 3-6. Not enough, it would appear, as Shabana would bank the next three points on the trot to go out in front 9-3. During this run Shabana showed glimpse of the creativity that propelled him to World Number One, at one point dragging Hisham into a weak shot from the front right only to respond with a crafty Philadelphia into the back left that seemed to hang directly over the head of the retreating Ashour the whole way back. Game to Shabana 11-4 (10m).
The second game started on more level ground, the players exchanging the first 4 points in quick succession. After a candid exchange with Referee Wayne Smith over a lob that clipped the line 1-1, Hisham responded with a backhand cross-court kill that found the nick at lightning speed. Not to be outdone, Shabana smoked the next serve he saw with a mirror-image southpaw cross-court kill into the front left nick. At 2-3, after being denied a let on the previous point, Hisham would vehemently protest a let granted to Shabana. "He asked nicely," quipped Smith in response. Shabana was employing the forehad cross-court drop to perfection, feathering it into the nick from off of his left hip. So effective was the shot that at one point, after failing to pick one out the dead nick, Ashour shook his head and asked the crowd "See that shot??" Hisham would put his trade-mark 'Mizuki' into play a number of times in the second but Shabana would have none of it, doggedly retrieving the deceptive shots with some fleet-footed movement and a -long- lunge. Game to Shabana 11-7 (11m).
Shabana seemingly lost focus in game three. The game saw Shabana make a number of uncharacteristic mistakes and even fall prey to a rare service ace at 3-1. A Hisham head fake would send Shabana the wrong way at 5-1. Ashour displayed the finest of touch off a Shababa drive, half-volleying a cut drop into the nick to forge ahead to 7-1. Facing nine game-balls at 10-1, Shabana smash-killed a cheeky Philadelphia service offering, the ball rolling out of the front-left nick. That would be as close he got in the game however. Game to Ashour 11-2 (5m).
The fourth and final game of the match was a barn-burner all the way up. Neither player got out to more than a 1 point lead the entire game. Hisham appeared to be on the comeback trail but made a critical mistake by hitting a Mizuki into the tin at 7-7. After back-to-back Shabana lets Hisham screamed in jest "No effort!!" In good fun, Referee Smith assessed him with a conduct warning for dissent. Another boisterous protest was heard from Ashour at 8-8 when given a No Let decision on a tight forehand drop by Shabana. The words "Let....should be stroke....clear....noooo" were heard among the mostly unintelligible tirade unleashed by Hisham. "The answer is No Let" responded a smirking Smith. Celebrating a small victory was not above Ashour, mockingly raising his arms above his head in triumph upon hearing Shabana receive the dread No Let call two points later at 9-9. Shabana dispatched the elder Hisham brother in the next two points, 11-9 (11m)
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