Ashour wins 2nd world squash crown
Ramy Ashour beat Mohammed El Shorbagy 2-11, 11-6, 11-5, 9-11, 11-8 to win world squash crown.
Ramy Ashour reclaimed the world title on Friday with a marathon 2-11, 11-6, 11-5, 9-11, 11-8 win over Egyptian compatriot Mohammed El Shorbagy, describing the triumph as his "greatest triumph".
Ashour had to come from 7-8 down in the final game to see off the 21-year-old runner-up who had beaten the top-seeded world number one James Willstrop in the semi-finals.
Ashour had ended Nick Matthew s bid to win a hat-trick of world titles in the semi-finals, emphasising a significant shift of power away from the English.
But Ashour was most of all overjoyed that his success signalled a recovery from persistent injuries, two of which prevented him from finishing the 2010 and 2011 world championships.
"Sure to win it the first time was amazing," said the 25-year-old from Cairo, who took his first title in 2008.
"But when you win it (again) after a lot of struggle, it means something different, and it feels a lot different.
"I am proud of myself because I have been through many hard times. I feel like I am a stronger person now."
But there were moments when it seemed Ashour s thrillingly unorthodox strokeplay might not prevail.
El Shorbagy appeared remarkably calm, moved well despite his marathon the day before, and mixed the short and the long games well.
Ashour, by contrast, hardly functioned at all while losing a nine-minute first game, unaccountably became less inventive in the fourth, and appeared to be slipping in and out of his best focus in an up-and-down decider.
Later he admitted that his thoughts had been jumbling around "like a washing machine" much of the time.
"There s lots going on and you have to stop them, and that s the hardest thing to do in a world final," he said.
However from 7-8 down in the decider he managed four sharp forays at the front which just sneaked him home, but El Shorbagy had done enough to suggest that before long he may be challenging to be number one instead.
At 21 he is by far the youngest in the leading group, and has risen to the forefront while still trying to complete a degree in business studies at Bristol in England.
There he is coached by Jonah Barrington, a famously tenacious former world number one, who would have been proud of the mental strength his protege revealed.
"I wasn t as relaxed as he was. But at the end I tried to relax a little bit more," said Ashour, who once hugged El Shorbagy.
There was also a symmetry about his success, having started the tournament with a far-from-easy encounter with the younger El Shorbagy, Marwan, the world junior champion, and finished it against the elder brother.
But it may not be long before they are challenging him even harder.
