Top Seeds Slaughtered In St Louis

Jonathon Power and Amr Shabana, the top two seeds in the St Louis Open, crashed out of the event in dramatic style when beaten by third seed Karim Darwish and fifth seed Joseph Kneipp, respectively, in the semi-finals in Missouri, USA.

The first match of the evening was an epic battle, reminiscent of the first round encounter between Power and Simon Parke. Darwish started beautifully against the Canadian favourite Jonathon Power, fully utilizing his lethal arsenal of blistering drives and punishing drops. Aided by some uncharacteristically bad shots off Power's racket, Darwish took the opening game - incredibly, winning seven of his 11 points on dead nicks!

Power settled down in game two and showed that he was able to handle Darwish's deftly placed shots. There were multiple rallies where Darwish had to hit about three of four winning calibre shots in order to work Power enough out of position to win the rally. Both players traded points till nine-all, before Power went on to win the game.

At 6-5 in the third game, Power pushed Darwish out of his path and threw his horizontally stretched body to the ball, just to show the referee that he could return the shot. At 8-8, Darwish and Power duelled over who could hit the better drop - the rally eventually being won by Darwish 14 drop shots later!

It was clear that the match would be determined by shot-making finesse rather than fitness. Darwish brilliantly disguised a forehand crosscourt to wrong-foot Power at 9-9. Power managed to take the game by extending the points and waiting for Darwish to make the mistakes.

The momentum shifted as soon as the players stepped on the court in game four. Darwish was in the zone and cruised by Power with error-free squash to level the match.

Game five was characterized by extremely tight rails and out-of-this-world retrieving. Darwish shot out to a quick lead with early winners. Power struggled valiantly to level the score, but Darwish's early lead in the fifth was too much for Power to overcome. The last point was a classic 55 shot stunner, producing various looks of awe among the capacity crowd.

It was fitting that the last shot was a Darwish kill shot about a millimetre above the tin, as the 23-year-old Egyptian reached his 14th PSA Tour final with an 11-6 9-11 10-11 11-6 11-6 victory in 68 minutes.

The second semi-final could not have been more different: Both players started nervously - loose shots flew equally off of both players' rackets, resulting in numerous strokes. Shabana, the second seed, found his rhythm first and dictated play in winning the first game.

But Kneipp raised his game in the second. The first rally was the best point of the tournament, and it looked like another five-gamer was under way. Kneipp dug all of Shabana's shots out of the front corners and began to hit some brilliant winners of his own. The Australian built his lead to 7-2 with consistent play, at which point Shabana surrendered. Shabana lost the next four points in about 30 seconds.

Games three and four were all Kneipp. The 31-year-old from Brisbane opened both games by building early leads to discourage Shabana's thoughts of a comeback. Shabana's concentration escaped him, and he began heaving his racket at the various corners of the court. Referee Jonathon Power said it all when he remarked to Shabana: "next time you throw your racquet, try to throw it away from the camera" (which was positioned in the front left corner of the court).

Kneipp, runner-up in this year's Super Series Finals, wrapped up his 8-11 11-2 11-2 11-4 victory in just 38 minutes to reach his 13th PSA final.

Semi-finals:
[3] Karim Darwish (EGY) bt [1] Jonathon Power (CAN) 11-6, 9-11, 10-11 (0-2), 11-6, 11-6 (68m)
[5] Joseph Kneipp (AUS) bt [2] Amr Shabana (EGY) 8-11, 11-2, 11-2, 11-4 (38m)