Khalifa Crowned Alexandria Champion by Howard Harding
June 8, 2011-Underdog
Amr Khaled Khalifa brushed aside fourth-seeded Egyptian compatriot
Andrew Wagih Shoukry in the final of the Egyptian Circuit No2 to win
the PSA World Tour Challenger 10 squash event at the Sporting Club in
Alexandria.
Khalifa, the 18-year-old world
junior champion, reached the final after beating Olivier Pett, an
unseeded Englishman who made his breakthrough in the opening round
where he despatched third-seeded Egyptian Ali Farag.
Meanwhile fourth seed Shoukry became
the only seed to make the last four after ending the giant-killing run
of compatriot Mazen Gamal in the other semi. Gamal, the 24-year-old
world No 110 from Cairo, had earlier removed top seed Karim Abdel
Gawad, ranked more than 60 places higher.
But despite being unseeded, Khalifa
is now ranked higher than Shoukry - following two successive Tour wins
over the 20-year-old from Cairo since March.
And Khalifa, the world No59, also
from Cairo, made it three in a row when he beat Shoukry 11-7, 12-10,
11-5 in 40 minutes to lift his second successive Egyptian Circuit
trophy.
The success marks Khalifa's eighth PSA World Tour title triumph in only his ninth final - all since February 2009!