Ramy Ashour prevails in Kuwait Open final
After dropping the first set, Egyptian Ramy Ashour came back to defeat his fellow countryman, Amr Shabana, in the final to reclaim the Kuwait Open title on Tuesday, 2 November.
For the fourth year in a row, Ashour and Shabana met in the tournament final. After winning the title in 2007, Shabana went on to win the next two. It looked as if Shabana could have been on his way to
claiming his third Kuwait title in a row taking the first set 11-9.
But Ashour fought back and took the third set convincingly winning 11-4. Then, after being down a game ball in the third, Ashour clawed his way into the lead and took the set 13-11 on a tie-break.
From there Shabana seemed to have been unraveled by the 23-year-old and scored only a single point in the third set as Ashour closed out the match
at 9-11, 11-4, 13-11, 11-1 to claim the title after 45 minutes.
"Well, for me the whole week for me was very tough,"
Ashour told www.squashsite.co.uk after winning the title, "as I played a lot of strong players which I had to be solid in front of, otherwise I wouldn’t have made it to the final - and
these matches give you experience and a lot of confidence in your body and mind. Tonight’s match was different as I had to push myself for another day against a four times World Open champion, which makes it very special to have a win over him. He is great
player."
With the win, Ashour leveled the Kuwait Open final score with Shabana at 2-2, as well as leveling their overall head-to-head record at eight wins apiece.
"I think we both pushed in the first three games really hard so one of us had to take the high way in the fourth and luckily it was me," Ashour said about the
final match.
Shabana, had nothing but praise for the way Ashour took advantage of his opportunities over the course of the match.
"After the third, I let go mentally just a bit, and Ramy ate me alive. This guy is unbelievable, you let go for
a second, and he eats you alive."
With the tournament win, Ashour only strengthens his grasp on the world number one ranking as he now holds a 210 point lead atop the PSA Super Series rankings.
All the big names will be present for the next Super Series Platinum event to be held in Qatar from the 7th to
the 10th of November.
Tags: