English Squash Player Stuns Three-Time World Champ Shabana in Cairo Tourney
English squash player Alister Walker recorded one of the biggest win of his career after upsetting three-time World Champion Amr Shabana of Egypt to reach the semifinal stage of the Sky Open, held in Shabana’s home country’s capital of Cairo.
Walker has not win a single match against Shabana in their previous meetings for the past five years.
The 12th seed player already made waves in this tournament when he stunned compatriot Adrian Grant in the previous round in a 2-hour marathon match but this time it took him less than 45 minutes to outlast the Egyptian fourth seed with a score of 11-3, 11-6, 4-11 and 11-8.
Shabana, currently ranked fourth in the world, is a former top-ranked player having held the top spot for 33 months. The loss would mean that he will have to do well with his squash balls in upcoming tournaments in order to regain the chance to reclaim the number one ranking in the near future. The Egyptian player defeated Walker in last week’s British Open.
Walker revealed that prior to this match he watched the video of last week’s match in order to get an idea about how to deal with Shabana. The strategy paid off since he made changes on his game.
In order to make his place in the final, Walker will have to get past by world number one Karim Darwish of Egypt in the semifinals.
England’s number two player James Willstrop was unlucky in his bid, losing to Egypt’s Ramy Ashour in the quarterfinals.
