"Greg played a very good match, and controlled David, playing straight, straight, straight.So we had to find a way to make David find more angles, because Greg was controlling David and preventing him from being David Palmer, he couldn’t play his game… "I don’t know what happened in the fifth, if it was cramps or just physical exhaustion, but Greg did well not to give up the game, all credit to him. Congratulations to him, I’ve known him since he was 13, and already then, it was obvious he would be World Champion one day. He got very close to becoming one tonight."

 

"It all comes to the way the referee changed his line of refereeing tonight in the fourth game. "It’s not that he took the wrong or bad decision, but it’s the way he just change his line of referring totally, out of the blue. "Greg didn’t realise what was happening, and kept playing his backhand drop shots. Had he realised what was actually happening, he would have adapted, stopped playing backhand dropshots to play crosscourt drop shots, would have played on the other side, etc… "Players don’t mind getting a stroke or a not let against them as long as there is consistency, which was not the case tonight. "In the 5th, Greg was both mentally and physically exhausted…"

DAVID AT HIS BEST

One could say that I’ve seen a few Thierry Lincou slow starts by now, but this was not a slow start. This was no start at all. And there wasn’t one before he got himself down at 10/6 in the second game.

It was like he was not in the match at all. A total lack of confidence in his attacking shots on both right and left side due to a few early unforced errors, a sluggish sideways movement, a lack of focus, it went to the point where people starting asking me if he was injured, as his lack of involvement in the match was that apparent.

When he found himself down game ball facing the daunting task to be led 2/0, his brain started to connect at last. A few strange calls at 8/10 seemed to fire up his energy, David relaxed a bit - as he sometimes does when up comfortably, he calls that “his old demons” - and the Frenchman forced a tie-break. An imperial David re-established his lead with a splendid nick return of serve, and closed it out on a perfect backhand drop shot.

Didn’t look good for Lincou at all. As ever, he bit the bullet, and started a slow awakening, finding some nice attacks at last instead of simply returning weightless shots, putting the Marine under real pressure at last. A yet again strange no let decision at 9/8, this time against the Australian, gave the Comeback Man two game balls, but he would eventually need a tie-break to make us believe that we at last had a match on our hands.

But not tonight, Thierry, David seem to say. Contrary to their epic battle in Liverpool, where the Australian lost his grip on the match while leading 2/0 and started to doubt, today none of that. David simply played the best squash I have seen him play for an awful long time. Fluid on the court, relaxed, hammering the right front corner, intense in his length yet despatching feathered drops in both front corners, he purely and simply muzzled his opponent from 3/3.

Error free performance (only two unforced errors) from a superior David in every compartment of the game against a French who never seemed in the match… The hungrier for victory player rightly won tonight.
 

"Thierry is a slow starter, I usually take the first game, but it’s normally in the second and the third that the battle is played. "Today, the second was crucial. I was happy to get it in the end, although I was disappointed to let him come back in from 10/6… "I stuck to my game plan, trusted my shots, attacked and relaxed, in particular when I was up 2/1, as I knew that the pressure was going to be on him… "Thierry is so dangerous on the backhand wall, I didn’t want to get into long rallies on that side, so I played all the right side, picked up the pace, trying to get him out of that comfort zone he likes to play in, twisting him, stretching him… "I think I just had that little bit of extra power tonight."

ASTONISHING GREG, ASTONISHED CROWD

Too much pressure.

My Prince of Cairo had been carrying the whole of Egypt’s hopes and expectations on his shoulders for the whole week, and the load just became too heavy….

Greg didn’t have anything to lose, and his calm was yet again astonishing. As he came into the arena, he stopped to shake All Mighty Jahangir's hand before stepping on court. Then, just before play, he spotted a white feather on court, went to throw it off, and mimicked the movement of the feather floating in the wind….

Since he started to play at four and a half years old, Greg has been dominating his age group and beyond. He is not afraid of anybody (maybe wary of Thierry, but of nobody else), he believes that he has the potential to beat anybody, he believes he can be world champion. And he truly believed that he would beat Shabana on home soil.

And that’s why his shots were precise, lethal, perfectly chosen. His shot selection was spot on. Not one tactical error. Like when he played the Boss in Sheffield. Cool as a cucumber. Focused. Concentrated. Relaxed. Lethal.

Amr was at the other end of the spectrum. Like Thierry in the first semi, he didn’t start well, he was too taken back by the blasting start of G-Force Greg's shots and aplomb. Imprecision, lack of clear-sightedness, a bit slow on his legs, the resemblance with the previous match was astonishing….

An authoritarian Frenchman took the first two games, then lost the third, as Palmer did. Was Shabana going to be able to break the pattern, take the fourth, and force a decider?

It bleeping looked like it, as the crowd roared with ecstasy when his man led 8/3 in the fourth. But the pressure just got to the Prince of Egypt. Two tins allowed Greg to believe that he could still do it in four games.

“Tranquille, Greg”, shouted Thierry….

The rallies became longer and longer. Patiently, Greg kept his racquet firm, while his opponent's pressure cooker of a brain was near implosion. He played his game, simply, patiently, naturally. Point by point, the Frenchman clawed back.

Behind 9/8, Shabana played one of his famous forehand low drive kills that gave hope to the crowd. 9/9. Everything was still possible. But with a glued to the wall backhand low drive, Greg got match point. And as Amr Shabana’s last low drive hit the tin, sealing his exit from this 2006 World Open, the only thing we could hear was the wind around the court. A bedazzled audience went silent…

There wouldn’t be an Egyptian in the final.
 

"I was very calm as the pressure was on him. From the start, I was seeing signs of tension, in his look, he was making errors. And when he was losing a rally, he was talking to himself, often the sign that one is not settled. "I, on the other hand, felt in the best form, and I was ready for a good fight. "At 2/0 up, as I've never lost from that position, I got over confident, relaxed, he started to get his shots in, I started doubting, and all the audience that was chanting for him, it gave me goose pumps… "At 8/3 down in the fourth, he starting tinning his shots, so I just went back to basics, and rebuilt my game from scratch, point by point. "I cannot stress enough what a perfect fair play match that was. Shabana is somebody who has his head on his shoulders, he doesn’t cheat, he is fair. We are very good friends, and it’s not easy to handle on the court. He beat me before, and I beat him today, he’ll beat me tomorrow, and so on. That’s sport. "We had a good fight. I’m happy, but not completely satisfied as I still have one more match to go, that I firmly intend to win. I didn’t come here to play in the final, tomorrow, I will play at 200%. "One more step. One more match."