Amr Shabana:
New World Champion — Flashy shohtmaking, modest personality

By Martin Bronstein, © 2004 SquashTalk LLC, photos by Debra Tessier

Amr Shabana is Capable of Magic on the Court

Amr Shabana talks to Martin Bronstein about his new world status.

If Davide Bianchetti's removal of Peter Nicol in the World Open was a shock, then Amr Shabana's giant killing run over reigning champion David Palmer, world number six Anthony Ricketts, world number eight Karim Darwish and finally world number five Thierry Lincou to walk away with the world title, was an earthquake that left the old world rankings in ruins.

Shabana, a 26 year old native of Cairo, is such a squash being, you feel that he can hit a squash ball without seeing it or hearing it. He can bury it in the nick almost as well as John White. Shabana was typical of the species 'shooter': loads of fun to watch, but not a lot of consistency. For example in the year 2002 his rankings bounced between 15 and 39 - and that was in a 10 month period.

But in 2003, after speaking to Jonathon Power (another of the species now reformed) Shabana realised that if he were going to make it, he had better put in some serious work. And he did, forcing himself to overcome his dislike of training. That's not quite true; "I like training, I just can't make myself do it" he quips.

The results were still mixed, winning the Seville Open in Spain in June and suffering some bad early round losses. Which is why his performance in Lahore in December, winning six matches in six days came as shock to everybody, including I suspect, Shabana himself.

Martin Bronstein: Congratulations Amr, that was a terrific performance.

Amr Shabana: Thanks. That was one of my good performances, (laughs)

MB; What had you been eating …or smoking?

AS: No, no, not smoking. I just thought it was my time. You know, I had been training since the beginning of the summer pretty hard and I got my head together at the end of the year. I became more consistent.

Amr Shabana freezes David Palmer

MB: Some people say that you did well because being from Egypt you were used to the Pakistan heat.

AS: No. You have to be really fit to play in Pakistan because of the humidity. If you are not playing your best it is hard to play there. The last time I played in Pakistan I lost to Farrukh Zaman in the first round. But this time I was confident and consistent.

MB: When you met David Palmer in the third round, did you know he was injured?

AS: Yes. This is why I maybe did not play my best. I was too tense. I knew that I had to make him work hard. He had injured his leg but not his mind - he still played very good squash.

MB: What happened in the fourth game when you had match point?

AS: I hit five tins a in a row, I wanted to finish it too early. When I came off the court I said to myself that I had squandered the game and that I must not do it in the fifth. So I just played straight and found out that when I worked him to the back of the court, it hurt him even more than the front. I stopped playing my drop shots. I only used them when I buried him at the back. It was Omar ElBorolossy and Abbas who told me before the fifth game to play to the back because David was always waiting for me to play the drop shot. At one point I played three lobs in a row and he couldn’t get to them in time, he was forced to play a backwall lob.

MB: How did you feel when you came off court having beaten the world champion?

AS: It felt good. He had beaten me twice before, once in the British Open when I was injured. So I was waiting to play Palmer again. I really wanted to beat him.

Amr Shabana's play depends on his concentration

MB: I have to say Amr, as much as I admire your play, I would have put my money on Anthony Ricketts to beat you in the quarters.

AS: Why? He has never beaten me. I always beat him in the juniors and we have played twice in the seniors and I beat him both times. And the same thing happened with Ricketts as with Palmer; I was 9-7 up in the fifth game and I hit six tins in a row. I had a relapse - I went short too early and lost my concentration. I was going back to being the old Shabana. I remember thinking to myself 'Man, I can't believe it, after two hours of playing good squash I was 14-10 down because I was playing childish squash'. So then I thought 'Ok, you nearly lost the match because of your foolishness, now make him win the last point, don't give it to him, don't hit the tin.'
And that's what happened, I didn’t hit the tin and I just kept coming back.

MB: So it got to 16-16 and he was serving to you….

AS: And I hit the serve into the nick. I don’t know why. I don’t even think about it - I don’t calculate the shot, it just comes out.

MB. Then it was your countryman Karim Darwish in the semi-finals. Although he has been ranked above you, you have been beating him lately.

AS: Karim was one of the easiest matches of the tournament. I had beaten Palmer and Ricketts, but Karim had the easiest draw of the whole Open - he didn't have any strong matches - maybe Willstrop in the second round. So that was the difference and I felt it was my turn. After beating Ricketts after being six match balls down, I knew there was a reason for me to be in the final. I was not going to let Karim or anybody else stop me.

MB: What happened in the final against Lincou?

AS: It was strange, it was a surreal match. In the first game I could feel it was really weird for both of us. We were not tense, we were not into the game. It was the first world open final for the both us, so it was really a slow match like we were in another world. I won the first game, he won the second and then I won the third when I hit some good shots towards the end. And he never came back, which was strange because I felt I was more tired for the final. He had only lost one game in all his matches, whereas I had a lot of hard matches. I think when you are in the final of the world open, no matter how tired you are or how your body is hurting, your mind just pushes you through to win. And think I had that more than anybody else in the tournament. Everybody was injured or had an easy draw: I had a strong draw but I was determined to win it.

MB: On top of that, a pretty big paycheck.

AS: Not that much. The winner got $25,000 but Pakistan took 30% in taxes and the PSA took 7 percent, so I only got $12,000. In Egypt I am getting congratulations, but there are some people here who are not happy I won. If it was up to a lot of Egyptian squash officials, they would have preferred if Karim Darwish had won. For them for me to win is not in their best interests.
The money is good, but it is important for me to be the first Egyptian to win the world title, that's enough for me.

MB: What now for 2004?

AS: I have to get over a shoulder injury and I am training for Kuwait later in January. I am playing Lee Beachill in the first round. He won in Qatar and I won in Lahore, so it is good to have a hard match in the new year. If I win it will give me confidence, if I lose it will be a good lesson.

AMR SHABANA WAS SPEAKING FROM HIS HOME IN CAIRO

Amr Shabana in a thoughtful moment

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