Shabana & Palmer Out As England Quartet Advance In Saudi

The battle for New Year's honours as the first world number one of 2006 took an unexpected turn in the second round of the Saudi Squash International when both David Palmer and Amr Shabana failed to make their seeded positions in the second richest PSA Tour event of the year in the Saudi Arabian city of Al-Khobar.

Palmer, the sixth seed from Australia who currently heads the provisional January list, lost out 11-3 11-10 7-11 11-5 in 56 minutes to an inspired display by Egypt's Karim Darwish, the 10th seed.

"I think this victory is the best performance of my career," the 24-year-old from Cairo told www.squashsite.co.uk afterwards.

Shabana, the fourth seed playing in his first PSA Tour event since lifting the World Open title for the second time earlier in the month, was unable to master England's Nick Matthew and went down 11-8 11-2 6-11 11-2 to the 11th seed in 41 minutes.

Shabana later admitted that he had twisted his left ankle in the previous round against Welshman Alex Gough. "Today it was very sore - and when you play against a player such as Nick, you've got to be 100% to beat him," said the deflated world champion.

While Matthew will now take on England team-mate Lee Beachill for a place in the semi-finals, Darwish will face second-seeded Canadian Jonathon Power - against whom he surprisingly boasts three wins out of their last four meetings on the PSA Tour. Power took just 28 minutes to despatch Finland's Olli Tuominen 11-2 11-4 11-1.

The fastest finish of the day was claimed by James Willstrop, the Englishman who leapt to a career-high world No2 this month. The eighth seed crushed Pakistan's 16th seed Shahid Zaman 11-6 11-4 11-4 in 21 minutes and now meets top seed Thierry Lincou. The world No1 beat Gregory Gaultier after his compatriot retired injured midway through the second game, with the score standing at 11-7 6-0.

2nd round:
[1] Thierry Lincou (FRA) bt [12] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) 11-7, 6-0 ret. (23m)
[8] James Willstrop (ENG) bt [16] Shahid Zaman (PAK) 11-6, 11-4, 11-4 (21m)
[3] Anthony Ricketts (AUS) bt [13] Graham Ryding (CAN) 11-5, 11-8, 10-11 (1-3), 11-6 (55m)
[7] Peter Nicol (ENG) bt [9] John White (SCO) 11-6, 8-11, 11-7, 11-5 (60m)
[5] Lee Beachill (ENG) bt [14] Mohd Azlan Iskandar (MAS) 11-9, 11-4, 7-11, 7-11, 11-4 (58m)
[11] Nick Matthew (ENG) bt [4] Amr Shabana (EGY) 11-8, 11-2, 6-11, 11-2 (41m)
[10] Karim Darwish (EGY) bt [6] David Palmer (AUS) 11-3, 11-10 (2-0), 7-11, 11-5 (56m)
[2] Jonathon Power (CAN) bt [15] Olli Tuominen (FIN) 11-2, 11-4, 11-1 (28m)