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LONDON: Ramy Ashour kept on course to become the first Egyptian inalmost half a century to win the British Open when he reached thefinal with a scintillating 8-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-8 win over worldnumber one James Willstrop. Ashour, a former world number one himself, looked back to evenbetter than the form which earned him a World Open title four yearsago, as he overcame the imposing Englishman with a range of strokeswhich were as dazzling as ever. They were supplemented with quicksilver movement, which often madeit impossible for Willstrop to get the ball away from him, andsuggested that his lengthy injury break has more than merelyrepaired his damaged hamstrings. "I have to credit him for a fantastic performance," said Willstrop,a sentiment echoed by a British crowd which ended by saluting theman they had wanted to see beaten. "It was absolutely brilliant. And amazing that he could produce ashot like that at match ball in the semi-final of a British Open. Ijust love that. The crowd stood up. I have to look at the positive.It was genius to produce shot-making like that." Willstrop was referring to Ashour stepping forward into a servicereturn and striking a volley cross court into the nick, the joinbetween the sidewall and the floor, which it met with such pace andaccuracy that the ball whipped spectacularly along the ground. However, in many ways the penultimate point of the match was evenmore startling. Ashour soaked up the slow-balling drives with which Willstropattempted to extract errors and then made three court-lengthretrieves, including one in which he made a full length dive toboast the ball off the back wall and on to the front. "I was just trying to put away my demons," said Ashour, who oftenseems to play on the edge of an emotional precipice. "It's hard to handle the atmosphere. You have to raise your gameand play as well you can for these good people. They deserve it.And James is a great number one. I had to do something to comeclose to him." Remarkably, given the many great players to emerge from Egypt, thelast player from that country to win the British Open was AhmedAboutaleb in 1966. Amr Shabana, Gamal Awad, and Ibrahim Amin have also reached thefinal since then. Ashour plays Nick Matthew, the world champion from England, in thefinal. Matthew moved closer to another piece of British Open history bybeating compatriot Peter Barker 11-5, 11-8, 11-6. Matthew will become the first Englishman to win the title threetimes in the professional era if he overcomes Ashour. Earlier Nicol David, the highest profile woman squash player ever,moved to within one win of repairing the one small blemish on herCV by reaching the women's final. The World Open record-holder from Malaysia did that with a veryimpressive 11-5, 11-8, 11-4 win over Laura Massaro, the worldnumber three from England who upset her twice last year. David, who lost in the second round of the last British Open, nowplays 16-year-old Nour El Sherbini, who became the first Egyptianwoman and the youngest ever finalist in the 90-year history of theBritish Open. She did that by overcoming her higher ranked compatriot Raneem ElWeleily 14-12, 7-11, 11-4, 11-8. Sherbini, who still studies six hours a day for school exams,reached the final of the world's oldest tournament more than a yearyounger than the legendary Pakistani Jahangir Khan, who was 17 whenhe played Australia's Geoff Hunt in a famous final in 1981. - AFP/de. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Nail Polish Containers , Glass Bottles For Cosmetics, and more. For more , please visit Glass Bottles For Cosmetics today!
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