Shabana Overcomes Ashour To Win Kuwait Final

Avenging his loss to Ramy Ashour only seven days earlier on home soil, Egypt's world number one Amr Shabana defeated his fellow countryman in straight games in the final of the Kuwait Open to reverse the result of last year's final of the $200,000 PSA Super Series Platinum squash championship at the KSF Squash Complex in Kuwait City.

Last week, in the climax of the Hurghada International final in Egypt, world number two Ashour came from behind in games to beat his illustrious compatriot for the second time this year.

The 20-year-old from Cairo threatened to do it again in Kuwait: top seed Shabana led the first game 8-3, the second 8-1 and the third 6-0 - and each time Ramy came back.

But on this occasion Shabana held firm to take the title 11-9, 11-7, 11-10 (3-1) in 52 minutes, to increase the head-to-head tally over his young pretender to 5-3.

"Today, my game plan against Ramy was to play perfect squash, and that's what I had to do to beat him, play perfect squash," explained Shabana, whose 30th appearance in a PSA Tour final had produced his 21st win.

"I stuck to my plan until 6-0 in the third - when I saw a twinkle in his eye. And that's never good, to see a twinkle in Ramy's eye, because you know he is going to come back!

"And I could see him hurting, but I saw him make a last push. And that's why I'm so happy to have won 3/0 - I'm so happy to beat Ramy today.

"I played differently than I did in Hurghada last week. I made sure that I was finishing every game, and not giving him any chances - because if you do give him a chance, he'll eat you!"

Ashour admitted that his Egyptian team-mate deserved the win: "I don't want to take anything away - the man was too good today, he played the right shot at the right time, he was accurate, precise and fast. He fully deserves it.

"I'm happy I went in the final, and that I'm finally enjoying it. And, like Shabana said last week, today, I lost against the world number one: that's not too bad," added the second seed.

Final:
[1] Amr Shabana (EGY) bt [2] Ramy Ashour (EGY) 11-9, 11-7, 11-10 (3-1) (52m)