35-Year-Old Amr Shabana Sails Into US Open Semis by Nathan Clarke October 16, 2014
- Four-time World Champion Amr Shabana eased into the semi-finals of
the 2014 Delaware Investments US Open courtesy of a comfortable 3-0
victory over compatriot Omar Mosaad at Philadelphia's Drexel University
earlier today.
The two-time US Open
champion took just 36-minutes to see off Mosaad, nine years his junior
at 26-years-old, in a standout performance that saw the 'Maestro'
produce some dazzling skills whilst displaying his impressive physical
prowess.
Shabana will now take
on current World Champion Nick Matthew, whom he beat at the
quarter-final stage of the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champion in New
York in January, for a place in the final on Saturday.
"I was fortunate in
that I played my best today and Omar was a little off his game as he
usually gives me a pretty tough battle," said Shabana.
"But I'll take it to get to the semi-finals and I'm happy to be through.
"Nick is an
unbelievable athlete and I will have to give it my all against him in
tomorrow's semi-final. I will need to be at my best to be able to
compete with him but I hope I can do that and put on a great show for
the fans."
Victory in that
match-up against Matthew could see Shabana, who held the number one
ranking slot for 33-months from 2006 - 2009, deny the Englishman the
chance of regaining the No.1 ranking he last held in March as he enters
a three-way battle with current incumbent Gregory Gaultier and World
No.2 Mohamed Elshorbagy to top the chart in November.
Matthew, who booked
his semi-final place following a 3-0 win over Fares Dessouki, has to
win the tournament in order to have any chance of returning to No.1 but
he says his eyes are not fixed on the rankings table.
"All the talk about rankings has been about Mohamed and Greg and I'm happy to fly under the radar at the moment," he said.
"A lot has been said
about those two and rightly so, they are the best two players around at
the moment and everyone else is trying to get up to their level but
there's a lot of good squash to be played in the bottom half of the
draw as well and it’s always a great game against Shabana.
"This is my first
tournament back after a long summer break after the Commonwealth Games
so I'm taking the pressure off and just enjoying playing my squash."
2014 Delaware Investments US Open: Quarter-finals, Bottom Half Results: [4] Amr Shabana (EGY) bt [7] Omar Mosaad (EGY) 3-0: 11-3, 11-8, 11-8 [36m] [2] Nick Matthew (ENG) bt Fares Dessouki (EGY) 3-0: 11-5, 11-4, 11-6 [35m]
2014 Delaware Investments US Open: Semi-final Draw [Friday October 17]: [1] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) v [3] Mohamed Elshorbagy (EGY) [4] Amr Shabana (EGY) v [2] Nick Matthew (ENG)
