CAIRO: Amr Shabana returned to the top of the world squash ranks after defeating fellow Egyptian Ramy Ashour to win his fourth World Open title on Saturday. The victory saw an angered Ashour stumble to tears as Shabana won 11-8, 11-5, 11-5 to knock off his countryman to tie Australian Geoff Hunt with four world titles. Now, only two Pakistanis, Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan, have won more world titles that Shabana. Reports stated the match did not live up to expectations, with both Ashour and Shabana not playing to their dynastic positions atop the squash world. Most experts say the two Egyptians are the most gifted players of the era, but instead emotions played a far greater part of the match than the one-sided outcome showed. Ashour was constantly arguing with referee Nasr Zahran when he was down 6-8 in the first session, slamming his racket frustratedly against the wall after the dispute. Then again, he lashed out at Zahran after being refused a let later in the match, which sparked a code-of-conduct warning. In the final set, Ashour became sarcastic, askign the referee “can I get that?” and after being given an affirmative, he again replied sarcastically, “thank you.” When the match ended unceremoniously, Ashour dashed away, leaving officials worried that he was not going to be present for the trophy presentation, but he finally returned, begrudgingly. “I have nothing to say,” Ashour commented when he returned. “All I can say is that he played very well. He was more consistent than I was. The referees f…..ed me up.” Shabana, was more gracious, talking of the difficulties of being a referee. “It's a difficult job, and it's never going to be 100 percent,” he said. “You get calls you don't like, and you have to live with them in squash.” BM
