RESULTS: JP Morgan Tournament of Champions, New York, USA
2nd round:
[1] Karim Darwish (EGY) bt [12] Hisham Mohd Ashour (EGY) 11-8, 11-9, 11-8 (37m)
[7] David Palmer (AUS) bt [Q] Adrian Waller (ENG) 11-4, 11-4, 11-4 (30m)
[3] Amr Shabana (EGY) bt [9] Alister Walker (ENG) 6-11, 11-5, 2-11, 11-2, 12-10 (64m)
[6] James Willstrop (ENG) bt Mohd Ali Anwar Reda (EGY) 11-5, 11-6, 11-6 (39m)
[8] Wael El Hindi (EGY) bt Simon Rosner (GER) 10-12, 10-12, 11-9, 11-7, 11-6 (81m)
[4] Nick Matthew (ENG) bt [10] Stewart Boswell (AUS) 11-5, 11-5 ret. (23m)
[5] Ramy Ashour (EGY) bt [Q] Nicolas Mueller (SUI) 11-5, 11-7, 11-7 (25m)
[2] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) bt [14] Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL) 11-8, 11-5, 11-8 (37m)
The fiery spirit, agile athleticism and silken squash shot-making of Egypt’s Amr Shabana were on full display as he eked out a tiebreak fifth game victory against England’s Alister Walker in the JP Morgan Tournament of Champions, the $97,500 PSA World Tour Super Series event at Grand Central Terminal in New York.
"I was almost on a plane home tonight," said the relieved two-time title-holder after the match. The ninth-seeded Walker, who had beaten Shabana for the first time in September at the Sky Open in Egypt, roared into the match, winning the first game 11-6.
"My head was all over the place," the third-seeded Egyptian said. "I had to tighten up my game to get back on track. He has amazing reach, and can volley any ball that isn’t really tight on the wall." In a match marked by huge momentum swings, Shabana won the second game 11-5, lost the third 11-2, and won the fourth 11-2.
"When you get to the fifth, it is anybody’s game," Shabana continued. He looked to have the match in hand at 7-3, but the Englishman staged a five point rally to take the lead 8-7 after moving Shabana from side to side and hitting a winning backhand shot. A Walker tin and a stroke to the Egyptian gave Shabana match ball at 10-8. His leaping volley on the next point went into the tin and an out ball brought the game to a 10 all tie. Shabana showed that he was not about to be denied as he made two diving saves to keep the ball in play on the next point which ended in a let. The eventual victor then buried the ball deep in the backhand corner to force an error from Walker, which was followed by a tin, securing the world champion a place in the ToC quarter-finals.
Shabana’s opponent will be sixth seed James Willstrop, also an Englishman, who defeated Mohd Ali Anwar Reda in three straightforward games. Having survived a tough five-game first round match, the Egyptian wasn’t sharp or strong enough to challenge Willstrop. There was a heart-stopping moment in the second game, however, when Willstrop asked for a three-minute injury timeout. "It was scary, because I’m just now feeling fully comfortable after recovering from surgery in April for a bone spur, and my worst nightmare is to have another injury,” said the Yorkshireman. "Fortunately it wasn’t anything more than a slip on court."
Top seed Karim Darwish also made it into the quarterfinals with a win over countryman Hisham Mohd Ashour - who made Darwish work hard for the win, even though it was a straight game victory. “With Hisham, you never know how he’s going to play – he always brings something new to the court,” Darwish remarked. “Every time I play him I feel like I am playing him for the first time.” Ashour, although frustrated that he did not win a game, was encouraged by the standard of play. “I was finding some good pace,” said the 27-year-old. "Now I just need to get all the good squash in my head out on the court."
Darwish’s next opponent will be seventh seed David Palmer, the Australian who defeated English qualifier Adrian Waller. "He was just too strong,” said Waller after losing 11-4, 11-4, 11-4.
Palmer admitted that he had a favourable draw: "I am trying to take advantage of it so I can be in a position to challenge the top four guys. I definitely wanted to have short matches so I didn’t waste any gas in the early rounds."
World No1 Ramy Ashour opened the evening session of play with a blistering victory over Swiss qualifier Nicolas Mueller. The 22-year-old Egyptian had some extra fire in the belly after reading that some of his fellow competitors thought they had figured out his game. “Some people think that they know my game – that they can beat me at my game. But for someone to learn my game is very hard. I play by instinct –no one can know me but me,” Ashour explained.
"It was crazy out there, playing the world No1 in front of a full crowd,” said Mueller. ”It took me one game to realize just how fast the pace is at which he plays.”
The final match up in the quarterfinals pits England's world No2 Nick Matthew against eighth seed Wael El Hindi. Matthew spent only 23 minutes on court in his match against Stewart Boswell. After dropping the first two games, the Australian shook hands with Matthew indicating that he was retiring from the match due to a sore knee which he had injured in his match warm up.
"I would have liked a little more time on court,” said Matthew. "But I did OK last year without a lot of court time,” ruefully noting that Boswell had defaulted to him in last year’s tournament in which he received two walkovers en route to the 2009 final against Gaultier.
Quarter-final line-up:
[1] Karim Darwish (EGY) v [7] David Palmer (AUS)
[3] Amr Shabana (EGY) v [6] James Willstrop (ENG)
[4] Nick Matthew (ENG) v [8] Wael El Hindi (EGY)
[2] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) v [5] Ramy Ashour (EGY)