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Comfort Inn Open 2012
10-15 Jan, North Vancouver, Canada, $50k |
 15-Jan,
Final:
SHABANA'S DAY IN VANCOUVER
Paul Marley reports
Amr Shabana claimed his first title at his first Comfort Inn Open
presented by the Evergreen Squash Club and the Province of British
Columbia/ Hosting BC at the Evergreen Squash Club on Vancouver’s
North Shore.
Of course this is a habit that Shabana has formed since joining the
tour in 2005. In the 71 tournaments played to date he has won 19 for
a winning percentage of 27%. Not too shabby.
And his domination over his very creative and popular opponent,
fellow Egyptian Hisham Ashour, who was a finalist in the 2011
Comfort Inn Open, remains complete as this is the eighth time in
eight meetings that Shabana has defeated Ashour in PSA Tour play.
But the path to victory was not easy.
In the first game, Shabana built a 4-1 lead only to see Ashour draw
even at 4-4. Shabana went ahead to a 6-4 lead only to see Ashour
take the next five points to lead 9-6 and eventually win 11-7. Both
players seemed slightly tentative as they committed two unforced
errors each.
Then in the second game Shabana again built a substantial lead – 5-1
- only to see Ashour get close at 6-7 but could never close the gap
and the game was Shabana’s 11-9 and the match was all tied.
The third game was all Shabana’s as Ashour committed seven unforced
errors to Shabana’s one unforced error for a relatively easy 11-7
win. It’s hard to give a world class champion like Shabana an
effective 6 point lead and expect to win. It’s too big a handicap.
The fourth and final game, much against the gallery’s will who were
desperately hoping for a fifth, saw only a one unforced error
difference between them – two for Ashour and one for Shabana. Was
that the difference in the 12-10 nail-biting win for Shabana or was
it the enormous pressure he was constantly putting on Ashour? I’ll
leave that to better squash minds than mine.
Either way it was a hard fought, much deserved win for Shabana. As
documented earlier, he started the tournament on shaky grounds as he
almost lost a first round match to the 2010 Champion, Martin Knight
and suffered a bagel along the way. Maybe that provided much needed
motivation but as as the tournament progressed he seemed to gain
momentum and confidence in his game and emerged a winner for the
second consecutive week.
A great start to the 2012 season and he has served notice to his
younger compatriots that there is no room for them at the top of the
squash pyramid at this time. They will have to wait their turn and
stay patient.
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 Comfort
Inn Open 2012
10-15 Jan, North Vancouver, Canada, $50k |
Round One
12 Jan |
Quarters
13 Jan |
Semis
14 Jan |
Final
15 Jan |
[1] Amr Shabana (Egy)
5-11, 12-10, 0-11, 11-5, 11-3 (53m)
Martin Knight (Nzl) |
[1] Amr Shabana
11/7, 11/8, 11/8 (45m)
Cameron Pilley |
[1] Amr Shabana
11/6, 12/10, 9/11, 11/9 (44m)
Tarek Momen |
[1] Amr Shabana
7-11; 11-9; 11-7; 12-10 (50m)
[2] Hisham Ashour |
Cameron Pilley (Aus)
11/6, 5/11, 11/4, 11/6 (62m)
[Q] Joe Lee (Eng) |
Julian Illingworth (Usa)
10/12, 11/3, 11/9 rtd (29m)
[Q] Mohamed Abouelghar (Egy) |
[Q] Mohamed Abouelghar
11/9, 11/13, 11/4, 12/10 (50m)
Tarek Momen |
Tarek Momen (Egy)
6/11, 13/11, 11/9, 6/11, 11/7 (105m)
[4] Daryl Selby (Eng) |
[3] Omar Mosaad (Egy)
9/11, 11/5, 7/11, 11/9, 11/9 (95m)
Alister Walker (Bot) |
[3] Omar Mosaad
11/9, 11/3, 11/1 (30m)
Olli Tuominen |
[3] Omar Mosaad
11/9, 11/9, 13/11 (49m)
[2] Hisham Ashour |
Olli Tuominen (Fin)
11/4, 11/13, 11/4, 11/7 (49m)
[Q] Adrian Waller (Eng) |
Ali Anwar Reda (Egy)
6/11, 11/9, 7/11, 11/6, 12/10 (65m)
[Q] Amr Khaled Khalifa (Egy) |
Ali Anwar Reda
11/9, 11/8, 11/9 (38m)
[2] Hisham Ashour |
Shahier Razik (Can)
7/11, 11/7, 11/7 rtd (40m)
[2] Hisham Ashour (Egy) |
11-Jan,
Qualifying Finals:
Joe Lee (Eng) bt Jan Koukal (Cze)
11-3, 8-11, 11-3, 11-6 (57m)
Adrian Waller (Eng) bt Chris Simpson (Eng)
11-6, 11-8, 11-8 (57m)
Amr Khaled Khalifa (Egy) bt Henrik Mustonen (Fin)
11-8, 11-7, 11-6 (35m)
Mohamed Abouelghar (Egy) bt Mark Krajcsak (Hun) 5-11, 11-9,
8-11, 13-11, 11-9 (64m)
10-Jan, Qualifying Round One:
Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY) bt
(1) M.A. Rodriguez (COL) 8-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-9
(50m)
Mark Krajcsak (HUN) bt (8) Campbell Grayson (NZL)
11-6, 14-12, 11-3 (55m)
Joe Lee (ENG) bt (5) Cesar Salazar (MEX)
11-6, 4-11, 12-10, 11-4 (49m)
(4) Jan Koukal (CZE) def (L) Zac Leman (CAN)
11-7, 11-6, 11-4 (26m)
(3) Chris Simpson (ENG) bt (L) Sarfarez (CAN)
11-2, 11-4, 11-6 (20m)
(7) Adrian Waller (ENG) bt Andrew Schnell (CAN)
11-5, 11-9, 11-9 (20m)
(6) Amr Khaled Khalifa (EGY) bt (L) Morgan Laremouille (CAN)
11-8,11-5, 11-9 (22m)
(2) Henrik Mustonen (FIN) bt Dane Sharp (CAN)
12-10, 8-11, 11-3, 7-11, 11-3 (60m)
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14-Jan,
Semis:
TOP SEEDS TO CONTEST
COMFORT INN FINAL
Paul Marley reports
In an all Egyptian semi-final tonight, the seeds prevailed at the
2012 Comfort Inn Open, presented by the Evergreen Squash Club and
the Province of British Columbia/Hosting BC.
The first match of the day featured our #2 seed, Hisham Ashour,
competing against our #3 seed, Omar Mossad.
 Ashour,
whose younger brother, Ramy, is ranked #4 in the world, impressed
the galleries as he made his way to the Comfort Inn finals last year
and in his matches in this year’s event thus far, with his stunning
array of deceptive shots that are made with such speed & precision
his opponents and his galleries are often left staring in disbelief.
His dedication to fitness over the past year has seen his ranking
progress from #29 to #14 currently which is truly an outstanding
achievement.
His much younger opponent, by nine years, Mosaad, enjoyed an
outstanding junior career, including winning the 2006 British Junior
the week prior to his first visit to the Evergreen Squash Club and
has since seen his ranking rise from #123 to #13. The 6’5”
powerfully built Cairo resident has been impressive in his march to
the semis this year.
Although the match ended in a 3-0 victory for Ashour, the game score
will tell you that every game was a very hard fought affair that had
the gallery, let alone the players, focused on every rally. It was
wonderful to watch as the players put out a superb effort for which
the packed gallery responded appropriately.
 The
second match featured our #1 seed, the winner of last week’s PSA
World Series Final, Amr Shabana versus the unseeded and much
younger, Tarek Momen, who is making his fifth appearance at
the Evergreen Squash Club.
So the stage was set for a classic battle between the young lion,
rising in the ranks, competing against the mature lion who has
demonstrated that he still has the skills and motivation to continue
to play at the highest level and has no intention of abandoning his
territory any time soon.
As the scoreline indicates, the match started out a little slowly
with Shabana winning the first game fairly easily. But Momen seems
to gain confidence, maybe realizing that he could compete with his
legendary countryman, and the next three games were very competitive
and very entertaining. Shabana prevailed but it seemed that Momen
served notice that he is becoming a factor to be reckoned with at
this level in the very near future.
It clearly was a wonderful evening of squash and the curious will
note that of the seven games played tonight, all but one ended 11-9
or in overpoints.
So, given that both Shabana & Ashour seem to be at the top of their
game, the question for tomorrow’s final is – which Egyptian will
climb to the top of the pyramid?
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13-Jan, Quarters:
EGYPTIAN TAKE OVER IN VANCOUVER
Paul Marley reports
The
quarter final round of the 2012 Comfort Inn Open, presented by the
Evergreen Squash Club and the Province of British Columbia/Hosting
BC, was played this evening at the Evergreen Squash Club on
Vancouver’s North Shore with the Egyptians sweeping the table.
Unlike the matches to date, there were no upsets as all the higher
ranked players prevailed. And unlike the opening main draw matches
last night where four of the eight matches lasted an hour or more
and four of the eight matches went to five games, no matches
exceeded 50 minutes, there were no five setters and there were three
3-0 results.
The match of the evening featured a five time participant in Comfort
Open play, the young former 2007 British Open Junior Champion,
Tarek Momen, against fellow Egyptian and 2012 British Open
Junior finalist earlier this month, Mohamed Abouelghar, who
had advanced to the quarters through the qualifying rounds. The pair
treated the packed gallery with an amazing display of squash with
Momen prevailing in overpoints in the fourth.
Hisham Ashour showed some of his impressive arsenal of
“deception” shots but had to stay with hard steady squash in order
to prevail in three hard fought games with countryman Ali Anwar
Reda.
Omar Mosaad secured his place in the semis with a relentless
display of hard grinding squash that continually kept the very fit
Olli Tuominen in a defensive mode through the entire three
games.
 And,
in the final match of the evening, Amr Shabana demonstrated
to the crowd that his game was back in form and showed no signs of
the slow start we saw in yesterday’s opening round as he put away
Australian Cameron Pilley in three very competitive games.
The Shabana magic was on full display tonight and it will be
interesting to see if any of his countrymen are up to knocking him
off the top of the pyramid.
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12-Jan, Round One:
EGYPTIANS ADVANCE IN VANCOUVER
Paul Marley reports
The
first round of the main draw of the 2012 Comfort Inn Squash
Championships, presented by the Evergreen Squash Club & the Province
of BC/Hosting BC, was played this evening at the Evergreen Squash
Club in North Vancouver with the fans getting their money’s worth as
play lasted until close to midnight.
Here are some of the highlights:
- Amr Shabana, the world ranked #8 and the tournament’s #1
seed, got off to an unbelievably slow start falling behind 2-1 to
world ranked #38 and 2010 Comfort Inn Champion, New Zealand’s Martin
Knight. Then the Prince of Cairo seemed to find his groove and
pulled the match out of the fire in five in just under an hour.
- 50% of the matches went longer than one hour.
- 50% of the matches went to five games.
- Two matches ended in retirement as Shahier Razik and
Julian Illingworth were both injured during play.
- The 18 year old Egyptian qualifier, Mohamed Abouelghar
continues his impressive run into the quarters.
- Tarek Momen got a measure of revenge for his loss in the
2009 Comfort Inn Open final to Daryl Selby by beating the defending
Champion in an outstanding match that took 105 minutes to complete.
I know the fans were exhausted, I can’t imagine how the players
felt.
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FACT
Shabana lost the third game 11-0 - suffering the first ever
whitewash game loss in his entire career!
Tweeting away
Chris Ryder:
In hindsight, Martin Knight should've retired after that 3rd
game against Shabana last night...
Julian Illingworth:
My roughly 12 year unbeaten streak against players with braces ended
today by 18 year old Egyptian. Luckily my AARP streak is still
intact
Daryl Selby:
A new set of feet required please. Mine have been massively overused
today and wouldn't mind a new set of quads#brutalmatch.
Lost 3-2 in about 100 mins. massive match, if I had taken game balls
in 2nd I think it was mine. But hats off to Tarek, well played
sir...
Disappointing times but couldn't have given anymore tonight. #onwardsandupwards |
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11-Jan, Qualifying Finals:
IS SEVEN A LUCKY NUMBER IN EGYPT?
Paul Marley reports
The
qualifying rounds of the 2012 Comfort Inn Squash Championships,
presented by the Evergreen Squash Club, the Province of BC & Hosting
BC, were concluded this evening at the Evergreen Squash Club in
North Vancouver with two more Egyptians joining five of their mates
in the main draw.
Already having the first three seeds in the tournament, with four
time World Champion, Amr Shabana leading the way, 18 year old
Mohamed Abouelghar and 19 year old Amr Khaled Khalifa
made it an Egyptian version of the “Magnificent Seven” in the main
draw.
Two Englishmen, Joe Lee & Adrian Waller also made an
impressive entry into the main draw. Both defeated higher ranked
opponents and both completed their matches in 57 minutes.
 The
consensus was that the match of the evening featured Abouelghar, who
had scored a major upset over the number one ranked qualifier the
previous evening. He battled the fine Hungarian, Mark Krajcsak, in a
thrilling 64 minute match that had the largest gallery ever seen at
the Evergreen Squash Club for a qualifying final round totally
spellbound.
 This
match fell into the category of - “it’s a great match to win and a
tough one to lose”. As the game scores indicate, this match could
have gone either way.
So, it’s been a wonderful two days of qualifying and tomorrow it’s
on to the main draw action. We can hardly wait as there are some
very compelling matches to look forward to.
Is the number seven lucky? Stay tuned.
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10-Jan, Qualifying Round One:
SEEDS TAKE A BATTERING
IN NORTH VANCOUVER
Paul Marley reports
A
fabulous evening of squash was featured in the opening round of
qualifying play at the $50,000 2012 Comfort Inn Open, presented by
the Evergreen Squash Club and Hosting BC/Province of British
Columbia, being held at the Evergreen Squash Club on
Vancouver’s North Shore.
The purpose of the qualifying rounds, which conclude Wednesday
evening – main draw play starts on Thursday - is to determine which
four qualifiers, in a sixteen player draw, will advance to the main
draw joining the already pre-determined twelve participants.
As the tournament has grown over the past seven years, the calibre
of squash presented in the opening round of qualifying play has
progressed nicely from being pretty dozy to being very entertaining.
Here are a few of the highlights:
- The seeds got rocked tonight as
the number one, five and eight seeds lost.
- All five Canadians lost tonight
although Dane Sharp put up a very spirited effort in losing to
the number two qualifying seed Henrik Mustonen from Finland in
60 mins.
- Both Egyptians and all three
Englishmen prevailed in their matches.
- The Egyptians are hoping to win
tomorrow as they would join their five countrymen in the main
draw. Three Egyptians are the first three seeds in the main draw
including World #8 and four time world champion, Amr Shabana.
- In his first visit to the
Comfort Inn Squash Championships, the seventeen year old
Egyptian, Mohamed Abouelghar, impressed the gallery tonight in
taking down the number one seed, and a frequent and very popular
participant in this event, Miguel Rodriguez.
- Abouelghar was a finalist in
the British Junior Open last week and a finalist in the World
Junior Champs in the summer. He obviously has a bright future
and it will be most interesting to see if he can progress into
the main draw.
In addition to the 25 professionals from 12 countries, over 150
amateurs start play tomorrow evening.
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