Shabana Beats Matthew, Elshorbagy Over Gaultier to Set All-Egyptian US Open Final by Nathan Clarke October 17, 2014
- New World No.1 Mohamed Elshorbagy will take on four-time World
Champion Amr Shabana in the final of the 2014 Delaware Investments US
Open at Philadelphia's Drexel University tomorrow (Saturday October 18)
in a mouth-watering all-Egyptian encounter.
Elshorbagy climbed to
the top of the world rankings courtesy of an emphatic 3-0 win over
Frenchman Gregory Gaultier, who has occupied the top slot since April,
in the semi-finals whilst Nick Matthew, who also had aspirations of
regaining the No.1 ranking during the US Open, saw his hopes dashed at
the hands of a resurgent Shabana in the second semi-final.
The Egyptian pairing,
separated by 12-years, have never met in the final of the PSA World
Series event and Elshorbagy, who is aiming to win his fourth
consecutive PSA World Tour event and extend his 17-match winning
streak, says he is relishing the prospect of taking on the 'Maestro'.
"It's been a dream to
get to that spot and I can't believe I'm there right now," he said.
"But right now I have to control my emotions as I am playing against
Amr Shabana in a World Series Final which is such an honour for me.
"He is a true legend of the sport but I'm going to be trying to keep my momentum going.
"I've got my first
goal from this tournament, the No.1 ranking, but my second goal is to
win the title and I'll certainly be giving it one more push tomorrow to
achieve that."
Shabana, who occupied
the World No.1 slot for 33-consecutive months from 2006-2008, was quick
to offer his congratulations to Elshorbagy but has his sights set on
the title.
"Congratulations to
Mohamed, it takes a lot of work to become World No.1 but I'm coming
into tomorrow focused on beating the World No.1," he said.
"We're all here to compete and win and I'm taking it day by day and enjoying my squash at the moment."
2014 Delaware Investments US Open: Semi-final Results: [3] Mohamed Elshorbagy (EGY) bt [1] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) 3-0: 11-6, 11-9, 11-4 [48m] [4] Amr Shabana (EGY) bt [2] Nick Matthew (ENG) 3-1: 11-5, 11-9, 10-12, 11-7 [63m]
2014 Delaware Investments US Open: Final Draw: [3] Mohamed Elshorbagy (EGY) v [4] Amr Shabana (EGY)
