Karim Darwish upsets Amr Shabana to win Qatar Classic
It was a dream weekend for Karim Darwish who won his second Super Series Platinum event in as many months by upsetting second seed Amr Shabana in the final on Friday 12 November.
The Egyptian-born Darwish managed two upsets in a row first coming from two games down to defeat the tournament's number one seed, England's Nick Matthew, in the semi-final 8-11, 5-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-8,
after 73 minutes.
In the finals, he pulled the same trick, as Darwish came from behind again to win in the final over Shabana in four games, 8-11, 11-2, 11-7, 11-6, in 53 minutes.
For Shabana, the loss was his second Super Series final defeat in as many tournaments after losing out to Ramy Ashour in the final of the Kuwait Open at the end of last month.
The first game was a start and stop affair, which lasted a gruelling 21 minutes. Although Shabana appeared to get frustrated at not having several decisions go his way, in the end he managed to come away
with the game.
The effort in the first game must have taken a lot out of Shabana as Darwish walked away with the second game in under five minutes, setting up a crucial third game. After an error-filled third game Shabana
had lost momentum and from there Darwish had to simply lean on his opponent and eventually came away with the win after Shabana had already seemed mentally defeated.
"We know each other's game so well," Darwish told www.squashsite.co.uk after the match. "We both take the ball so early and there were some accidents as we were going for the ball. But it was a fair game,
a clean game. I only had two bad decisions at the start of the match. I lost some concentration there, but after that it was fine."
For the third time in as many Super Series Platinum tournaments it was an all-Egyptian final, with Darwish winning two of those finals and Shabana losing two of them.
"It was more of a mental match than a physical one," Darwish added. "In the middle of the third we had some big points. I gave it a big push to make sure I would come out on top leading 2/1. After that
I think he lost a bit of his focus and I gave it a good push to the finish."
Darwish and Shabana, and all the big names in the world of squash, will now get set for the largest tournament draw of the year in the prestigious Saudi PSA World Open which runs from 2-10 December.
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