Egyptian Amr Shabana has defeated Gregory Gaultier of France in the final of the Endurance World Open in Bermuda. Shabana, the World number one, becomes the World Champion and crowns a superb year – his win in Bermuda follows back-to-back wins in Saudi, Qatar and Hong Kong.

Shabana won the match 3-0 in 42 minutes with game scores of 11-7, 11-4, 11-6. With the victory the Egyptian becomes one of the select few to have won the World title three times.

The first game saw some great rallies and shots from both players, but Shabana’s kills shots really made the difference, giving him the edge. In the second game the Egyptian dominated – his winners were brilliant, and Gaultier made errors that we had not seen before tonight – Shabana treated the audience to a clinic on squash at the highest level. Game three saw a large number of let plays, and at one point it seemed that Gaultier may have the ability to get back into the match, but Shabana stepped up a gear and Gaultier made several mistakes. Once the Egyptian had a three point lead lead it was apparent that Gaultier was not going to prevail, and the Egyptian raised his arms in victory as he won the deciding point.

After the match, Shabana said that Gaultier was unbeatable 99% of the time, but today he had managed to beat him. But he wasn’t so sure that he would be able to do the same in the future.

The Egyptian was then presented with the World Open trophy by Ken LeStrange, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Title Sponsor Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd.

(photo courtesy of Steve Line squashpics.com)

A night of great squash started off with the world number one Amr Shabana defeating current World Champion David Palmer 3-1.

The Egyptian was covering all four corners of the court and his retrievals were excellent. He also made fewer mistakes overall – apart from a streak of tins in the second game, which Palmer won.

Shabana now has the chance to win his third world title in five years. Standing in his way will be Frenchman and number two seed Gregory Gaultier.

Gaultier continued his spectacular form beating Englishman Nick Matthew 3-0. Matthew did not really do too much wrong – Gaultier was just too good, and made it look easy. He hasn’t dropped a game yet in his run to the final.

At 7:30pm tonight the stage will be set for the biggest squash game of the year – the final of the Endurance World Open 2007. It promises to be a great final – the world number one Amr Shabana playing against the in-form Gregory Gaultier.

• Photos from the Semi Finals
• Today at the Open

Last night’s Endurance World Open Squash quarter finals produced one upset, and a dream line-up for tonight’s semi-finals.

We had one upset last night with the defeat of #4th seeded, James Willstrop, by fellow Englishman, 7th seeded Nick Matthew who registered a convincing straight games win against Willstrop.

He’ll be meeting 2nd seed, Gregory Gaultier of France who won against Scotland’s John White by the same score, but the 3 nil scoreline doesn’t begin to reflect how close and exciting this game was. White has always been a great competitor and last night he had the audience gasping as he retrieved some impossible shots before finally going down to the #2 seed.

The match of the night had to be the clash between the world #1 Amr Shabana, and former World Open champion, Thierry Lincou. It was Lincou who struck first, winning the first game, but the Egyptian showed why he’s the world’s top player with a magnificent display of shots and athleticism. He won the match 3-1.

And that means he’ll be playing the current World Open Champion, David Palmer of Australia, who powered his way into the semi-finals with a comprehensive victory over Alex Gough of Wales.

So tonights semi-finals at the Fairmont Southampton venue, which get underway at 7pm not 6 as originally advertised, will be Palmer versus Shabana, a fascinating clash, and Matthew versus Gaultier. It should be a night to remember.

Tickets will be available at the door an hour from 4.30pm.

Roger J. Sherratt, Press Officer, Bermuda Squash Racquets Association

• Photos from Day 5 can be seen here

The conclusion of the second round yesterday saw some outstanding displays of squash and two tough games for seeds Willstrop and White – but they eventually prevailed.

The real eye-opener was the last match of the evening, where Gregory Gaultier was supremely clinical in his vistory over Hisham Ashour in 26 minutes. The Frenchman made the Egyptian look ordinary – something that is very difficult to do with a player of that class.

Tonight sees a fantastic line-up for the quarter-finals – and what promises to be some spectacular matches. The matches we have in store:

• [1] Amr Shabana (EGY) vs [5] Thierry Lincou (FRA)
• [3] David Palmer (AUS) vs Alex Gough (WAL)
• [4] James Willstrop (ENG) vs [7] Nick Matthew (ENG)
• [2] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) vs [6] John White (SCO)

For all the results click here.

• Click here for match results
• Click here for point-by-point play from Day Four

Tuesday night saw the start of the a great evening – as Robert Edwards put it – we have a “glut of champions”.

The first player tonight had a very bad injury in 2003 – at the time he was ranked 4 in the world. His injury took him out for 2 years, and when he returned he won a number of tournaments in a row and jumped 279 places – he is now at 13 in the world. From Australia – Stewart Boswell. Our second opponent is “on a real mission” – to win this title so he can be ranked among the squash playing greats. In Egypt he is looked at like David Beckham – he is current World Number 1 – and has recently won in Saudi, Qatar and Hong Kong – he is, of course, Amr Shabana.

Edwards talks about squash in Egypt – he says that Shabana is one of the best players he has seen come out of Egypt. At the junior level Egyptians are also dominating. Stewart is also from a country of great squash players – Australia. The first match then begins.

• Click here for point-by-point play from Day Three
• Click here for match results
• More pictures from Day Three

The first round of the Endurance World Open Bermuda 2007 Squash Championship was completed last night, with four matches on the glass court at Fairmont Southampton.

The #2 seed, Gregory Gaultier of France had an impressive 3 nil win, as did Scotsman, John White, who is reputed to be the hardest hitter in the game, with a recorded speed of 172 miles an hour. He took his match 3 nil at a stroll.

It was almost the complete opposite for #4 seed, James Willstrop of England, who was down 2 games to nil, and 5 nil down in the 3rd game before slowly scrambling his way back into contention against a very classy “LJ” Anjema of the Netherlands. Anjema almost pulled off the first major upset of the championship, but not quite! Willstrop took the 3rd game 11-9, and went on to take the next two, moving him into the next round in what was considered to be the best match of the championship – so far.

The other winner last night was Nick Matthews of England who is considered to be a possible contender for the title, along with fellow countryman, Willstrop.

The 2nd round gets underway at 6pm tonight with four matches at the Fairmont Southampton. Tickets are available at www.boxoffice.com and at the door an hour before starting time.

Roger J. Sherratt, Press Officer, Bermuda Squash Racquets Association

Robert Edwards talks about the first player to come on stage – his father is someone everyone knows by his first name – Jonah. His son, Joey Barrington, did not take up squash until he was 19. He has one of the most famous surnames in squash. The second player is an immense talent – US Open champion and number seven in the world – Nick Matthew.

As the two players warm up Edwards talks about the remarkable fitness these guys have. He tells the crowd that their fitness comes from hours of practice.

Edwards talks about the fact that we have three referees – this system implemented by the PSA reduces the number of disputed calls. He also talks about how the tin on the professional tour is 17″ rather than 19″, and that players have 2 minutes between games rather rather than the traditional 90 seconds. The first game then gets underway.

• Click here for point-by-point play from Day Two
• Click here for match results
• More Day 2 photos

The first day of the tournament had actually started at midday at the BSRA club in Devonshire. First up was Frenchman Thierry Lincou, who defeated qualifier Julian Illingworth despite a minor hiccup in the third game. The next match saw the first upset of the day – qualifier Jonathan Kemp defeated 15th seeded Malaysian Ong Beng Hee 3-1. Englishman Peter Barker then dispatched his compatriot Bradley Ball 3-1. The final match at the Devonshire club was a marathon affair – Egyptian Wael El Hindi pipped Mexican Eric Galvez 3-2 in 99 minutes.

Then the matches moved to the main venue at the Fairmont Southampton. World number one Amr Shabana was on court first, playing Frenchman Renan Lavigne. Lavigne, originally slated to be a qualifier, kept the pressure on throughout but went down 3-1 despite a gritty performance. Then it was the big one – Bermudian James Stout playing number 12 seed Stewart Boswell. Stout acquitted himself well but just wasn’t up to the task of defeating his Australian opponent, despite fanstastic support from the locals in the arena. Then defending World Champion David Palmer then stepped on court and made short work of qualifier Shawn Delierre. The final match of the night saw an out of form Lee Beachill lose to Welshman Alex Gough in five games. Beachill, with the higher ranking, would have expected to win this, and he came out strong in the first game, but his older opponent played the waiting game – waiting for Beachill to make mistakes, which he began to do more often as the match wore on. The final match score was 4-11, 11-8, 5-11, 11-4, 11-5.

Today we see another 8 matches – 4 at the BSRA and 4 at the Fairmont Southampton venue. There are several ties which promise to be very close. We will also see Frenchman and number two seed Gregory Gaultier make his debut in the event tonight at 9pm on the glass court. For more details see Today at the Open. For Royal Gazette coverage see Defeated Stout has plenty to shout about.