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11-Aug-08:
Shabana eyes fourth World Title
Current World Champion Amr Shabana joined the annals of
squash greats last year when he
won his
third World Open title, a feat which put him in a select and
illustrious group of players alongside the legendary names of Geoff
Hunt, Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan.
Not content with three World Titles on his mantelpiece Shabana is
eyeing a fourth crown in Manchester this October and will go into
the squash spectacular as one of the red hot favourites having
recently extended his stay at the top of the world rankings to an
incredible 28 consecutive months.
Despite having a relatively poor record in Britain by his own high
standards, the Cairo born player is a huge fan of playing in front
of the English crowds and is relishing the opportunity to get to
Manchester to defend his coveted title.
World Open organisers have appointed Shabana an ambassador for the
event - along with women's world number one Nicol David and rising
English star Sarah Kippax - and
caught up with the Egyptian star to ask his thoughts on playing in
England, his inspirations and life away from the court.
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Do you enjoy playing in
tournaments in England?
 Yes,
I have been playing in England for a few years now and I always feel
that I play well here. I have noticed each time that the crowd seem
very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the sport. The crowd have
always been very supportive, even when I have been playing against
English opposition.
Who was your hero when growing up?
Whilst there was no one in particular, outside of the squash world I
watched a lot of football and tennis and loved watching all the top
players of those sports from the past decade or so.
Egypt has lots of good youngsters coming through at the
moment, did you benefit from a good youth coaching structure?
Yes, I had very good coaches but never really stuck to just one. I
have trained under 20 to 30 coaches as early in my career my father
had control of my training. Consistency wasn’t really a problem and
it gave me the opportunity to learn different things from the
strengths of each coaching style.
Which of the other players do you see as being your main
opposition for the Championships?
I have a lot of opposition in each tournament I play in; the world’s
top 24 are now very strong. In the game of squash the level has
really increased in recent times, there are lots of good players and
a lot of the matches are very hard to predict.
How do you view your compatriot, Ramy Ashour’s meteoric start
to his career?
He is a few years younger than me so we never played together when I
was younger. I have known about Ramy since he was about 10 years old
so have been able to watch him climb as high as world number two. He
has done very well in such a short space of time.
As World Number One do you feel you have achieved everything
you set out to or do you have further goals within the sport?
I have been the top player in the world for over two years now and
would like to maintain that in the future. I still have goals within
the sport and really want to win more World Opens during my career.
You are 29 years old, how long do you see yourself playing at
the highest level for?
It would be nice to play as long as I can to the best of my ability.
I am not really thinking about making any changes yet, I am
concentrating on the upcoming competitions.
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2003 Pakistan |
2005 Hong Kong |
2007 Bermuda |
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Do
you have a preferred stadium or arena or is there one which you
would like to play at?
