Amr Shabana Is US Open Champion

A scintillating performance in the final of the Delaware Investments US Open in Philadelphia saw Egypt's third seed Amr Shabana upset favourite Nick Matthew to win the PSA World Series squash title for second time in three years at the Daskalakis Athletic Center at Drexel University.

The 32-year-old from Cairo made an excellent start in his first appearance in a World Series final this year, thrilling the Philadelphia crowd with a series of winning shots that left world number one Matthew struggling.

Coming back from 6-1 down was a tall order, but the Englishman almost made it, getting to 8-9. But after a let decision was turned into a no let following a Shabana appeal to the video referee, the Egyptian underdog went on to take the game on another winning volley drop after 19 minutes.

The second was a carbon copy in reverse - Matthew dominant in the early game, cutting off Shabana's shots to race to an 8-1 lead, only to see the world No5 fight his way back.

From 9-4 down, left-hander Shabana rediscovered his touch to climb back to 8-9 before Matthew regained the upper hand to draw level.

But Shabana was totally dominant in the next two games - reeling off winning volley drops and drop shots almost at will.

"Matthew was by now clearly struggling with his movement and simply had no answer, scoring just five more points and three of those were late in the fourth game," explained event spokesman Steve Cubbins.

There was no big celebration as Shabana put in one last drop shot to clinch his 11-9, 8-11, 11-2, 11-4 upset after 51 minutes.

"It was a good match, and it's such a relief to win a major tournament again," Shabana told the official event website www.usopensquash.com after his first Tour title success since winning his fourth World Open crown in November 2009.

"It's been a tough couple of years, at times I thought I might never win again but I've been playing well this week and my body held up which is the important thing."

The win takes Shabana's career PSA Tour title haul to 27 - bringing him level with Australian David Palmer.

"I'm just glad you were all here to witness me winning again and I hope I can carry on playing well and win some more!" Shabana told the packed crowd.

It was a disappointing outcome for Matthew in his fifth successive appearance in a PSA World Series final this year: "I'm disappointed that my body let me down a little tonight, I was struggling to push off on my foot, but I gave it a good go and you have to be good enough to cope with these problems.

"It feels different from coming off court having given everything you have, but that's not taking anything away from Amr, he played really well," added the 31-year-old from Sheffield.

"His shots were firing in from all over tonight, and even at 100% I would have been struggling to cope with him. He was all over me by the end, and could have probably played some of those drop shots with his right hand, they were so good!"

Egypt's world number two Ramy Ashour maintains his place at the top of the 2011 Dunlop PSA World Series Standings, just five points ahead of Matthew. But Shabana is now in third place alone, after pushing England's James Willstrop down to fourth place.

Egypt's Karim Darwish, beaten by Mohd Azlan Iskandar in the first round in Philadelphia, slips out of the top eight - while the Malaysian takes his place to secure his first appearance in the top eight this year.

RESULTS: PSA World Series Delaware Investments US Open, Philadelphia, USA

Final:
[4] Amr Shabana (EGY) bt [1] Nick Matthew (ENG) 11-9, 8-11, 11-2, 11-4 (51m)

2011 Dunlop PSA World Series Standings

More details on the Official Website: www.usopensquash.com

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