KUWAIT CITY: Ramy Ashour will play against compatriot and three-time world champion Amr Shabana in the final of squash World Open on Saturday, after beating world-number one Gregory Gaultier on Thursday After Thursday's game Gaultier launched into a tirade against the refereeing which he claimed had contributed to his failure to reach the final of the World Open on Thursday. I can t believe it was such one-sided refereeing, the Frenchman said, after his noisy, controversial and incident-packed 11-5, 11-9, 12-10 semi-final loss to Ashour, the defending champion from Egypt. It was one European, one Egyptian and one South African, and I still get screwed, Gaultier alleged. I didn t get one single let throughout the match. I can t believe it. There were, however, other reasons for his loss - notably the hyped-up skills of Ashour, which were close to their brilliant best, as Gaultier acknowledged. The 22-year-old Ashour has been a variable force since taking the world title in Manchester last year, but now he was dangerous from the start, seemingly capable of flashing a rally-changing shot from any position. In addition, Gaultier was fractionally less lively than he had been the night before against Nick Matthew, which was possibly a legacy of his hard five-game tussle with the British Open champion. This may have contributed to a nasty fall he had at a crucial moment, at 9-8 up in the second game, after which he took a three-minute injury time out, returning to lose the next three points and the vital second game. It was not till early in the third game that Gaultier s frustration with the officiating boiled over. It s either a stroke or a no-let, he bellowed, when he was finally awarded a let. I didn t want to argue too much, because you are not supposed to with this three-referee system, said the Frenchman, who said he wished the system would be scrapped. I prefer the old system, he said, referring to the system with a referee and a marker. Whether the referee was good or bad he followed a certain way of doing things and you knew when to play the ball and when not to. But just as big an impact came from the zest and ambition of the revitalized Ashour. I really wanted to win this. I was on my form from the start, said the Egyptian. Egypt is now certain to retain the World Open title because Ashour now plays his compatriot, Shabana, a former world champion on three occasions. The 30-year-old reached his fourth final after quelling a dangerous fight back from James Willstrop, the 11th seeded Englishman, by 11-5, 11-9, 6-11, 11-9, reversing the result of their encounter in the British Open. Willstrop had inched his way bravely back to a 7-6 lead in the fourth game, and then from 7-9 to 9-9 before Shabana found two special moments of magic to finish it off. It was a privilege to play him today, said Shabana. I gave all I had. I m really glad that there s a rest day because it means there is a much better chance of a good final.
