Shabana Is St Louis Champion

For the second time this month, Egypt's Amr Shabana demonstrated that he is the in-form squash player of the moment when he won the MPM St Louis Open at the Garden Court in the St Louis Galleria in Missouri, USA.

Facing sixth seed Anthony Ricketts for the third time this year, the 26-year-old seventh seed from Cairo swept to an 11-10 11-8 11-7 victory over the Australian in 47 minutes to claim the five-star PSA Tour title for the first time.

Shabana, ranked seven in the world, has had a mixed run on the PSA Tour since taking the squash world by storm in December 2003 when, as ninth seed, he won the World Open crown in Pakistan - becoming the first Egyptian to hold the prestigious title.

But the newly-married Shabana has struck a rich new vein of form - and earlier in the month won the Heliopolis Open in his hometown of Cairo, beating compatriot Karim Darwish in the final.

"Najla changed my life you know, she gave me stability," said the left-hander of his new wife. "I've known her for four years, but it's only after our wedding that we started living together - and coming home to a house where somebody is there, waiting for you, happy to see you, and taking care of you made a huge difference," Shabana told www.squashsite.co.uk

Ricketts, the 26-year-old world No6 from Sydney, was pleased with his performance in his second PSA final of the year.

"But Amr was just too good, in particular his length was excellent, he didn't give me the opportunity to get to the front, I couldn't play my game," explained the runner-up.

Final:
[7] Amr Shabana (EGY) bt [6] Anthony Ricketts (AUS) 11-10 (2-0), 11-8, 11-7 (47m)