RESULTS: Sky Squash Open, Cairo, Egypt
Quarter-finals:
[1] Karim Darwish (EGY) bt [16] Cameron Pilley (AUS) 8-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-4 (54m)
[12] Alister Walker (ENG) bt [4] Amr Shabana (EGY) 11-3, 11-6, 4-11, 11-8 (42m)
[3] Ramy Ashour (EGY) bt [10] James Willstrop (ENG) 8-11, 11-6, 11-7, 7-11, 12-10 (60m)
[2] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) bt [9] Wael El Hindi (EGY) 11-9, 11-6, 11-7 (52m)
England's Alister Walker recorded the best win of his career when he beat three-time world champion Amr Shabana in the Sky Open to reach the semi-finals of the $147,500 PSA World Tour Super Series Platinum squash event at Sky Petrosport Club in Cairo.
Walker, the No12 seed, made his breakthrough in the previous round by upsetting higher-ranked England team-mate Adrian Grant in a 121-minute marathon.
After taking the first two games in the quarter-final against the fourth seed for just nine points, Walker allowed Egyptian maestro Shabana - the 30-year-old from Giza who held the world number one ranking for 33 months - back into the game.
But the 26-year-old Englishman, who was already celebrating his first ever quarter-final appearance in a Super Series event, reclaimed the upper hand to close in on his historic 11-3, 11-6, 4-11, 11-8 victory in 42 minutes.
It was Walker's first win over Shabana in five meetings since November 2004 - and revenge for his four-game loss to the left-hander in last week's British Open.
"I played him last week in Manchester, and I watched the game on video," Walker explained to www.squashsite.co.uk later. "I changed a few things about my game. I guess he was expecting a slow start, but that’s the best squash I’ve ever played in terms of being positive, sharp, severe with my attacks.
"Sooner or later, he was bound to find some great squash, and that’s what he did in the third and fourth, but I thought that if I could just hang in there, he could maybe make a couple of errors, and become edgy," added the Botswana-born world No12.
"And that’s what happened in the fourth. He lost more points than I won, I would guess, and for that, I’m truly grateful. I’m still in shock, I can’t take much in right now."
Walker will now meet Shabana's compatriot Karim Darwish, the world number one who ended Cameron Pilley's impressive run, beating the 16th seed from Australia 8-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-4.
A later Anglo/Egyptian clash also almost ended in an upset: James Willstrop, the 10th seed from England, faced Egypt's No3 seed Ramy Ashour - and the Englishman, who was runner-up in last week's British Open, took the opening game, then fought from behind to get the fourth to force the match into a fifth-game decider.
And, for the second time in just over a week, Willstrop saw his chance of victory disappear in a tie-break as Ashour clinched an 8-11, 11-6, 11-7, 7-11, 12-10 win in 60 minutes.
Ashour, the world No4 from Cairo, now takes on Gregory Gaultier for a place in the final. The second-seeded Frenchman despatched Egypt's defending champion Wael El Hindi 11-9, 11-6, 11-7 in the final match of the day.
Semi-final line-up:
[1] Karim Darwish (EGY) v [12] Alister Walker (ENG)
[2] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) v [3] Ramy Ashour (EGY)