Hungarian Open Title Signals Shabana Hat-Trick
Egypt's Amr Shabana toiled for 66 minutes to overcome France's Gregory Gaultier in the final of the Dunlop Hungarian Open Squash Championship in the Hungarian capital Budapest to claim his third successive PSA Tour title three weeks.
The left-hander, who in 2003 became Egypt's first ever winner of the World Open title, dropped the first game against his surprise French opponent, the fifth seed who was celebrating his second consecutive appearance in the Budapest final.
But second seed Shabana struck back to move ahead 2/1. However, the world No11 from Aix-en-Provence - who upset top seed Peter Nicol in the previous round - was still in contention, and fought back to level the match.
Shabana however reclaimed the advantage and ultimately claimed his 6-11 11-2 11-7 8-11 11-5 victory. With September successes in the Heliopolis Open, in his hometown Cairo, and St Louis Open in the USA, Shabana has now extended his unbeaten run to 12 matches – since last suffering a PSA Tour loss in the Pakistan Open in July, to Gaultier!
The Hungarian Open triumph brings Shabana's PSA haul to eight titles from 13 final appearances.
RESULTS: Dunlop Hungarian Open Squash Championship, Budapest, Hungary
Final:
[2] Amr Shabana (EGY) bt [5] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) 6-11, 11-2, 11-7, 8-11, 11-5 (66m)