ISLAMABAD - Egyptian Mohamed Abouelghar clinched title of the 2nd Serena Hotels-Chief of Air Staff (CAS) $25,000 International Squash Championship 2015 after beating fellow countryman Omar Abdel Meguid 3-2 in final played here at Mushaf Mir Squash Complex on Tuesday.
It was a huge upset as Omar was hot favorite to retain the title. The final was marred by a series of conduct warnings and two strokes were awarded against Abouelghar, who time and again lost his temper and pushed Omar, used highly objectionable language even against referee and termed decisions against him as shame. Referee M Fayyaz first awarded stroke against Abouelghar for misuse of racket and then for using word shame. Surprisingly, Omar looked relatively cool and composed and not the one, hot headed everybody knows. Strangely, he enjoyed crowd support too, which was quite strange as he was never known for crowd favorite.
Omar started the first game on slow pace and was 4-6 and then 5-7 down, but then he made a comeback to win next six points in a row to clinch the game 11-7 in 8 minutes. Omar was soon 1-3 down in the second game, but then a see-saw game was witnessed as the score was 5-5, 6-6, 7-7, 7-9, 7-10, but Omar then fought back and made it 9-10, before losing the game 9-11 in 17 minutes.
The third game was marred by highly unsporting behavior by Abouelghar, who looked very upset despite a few close calls went in his favour. Omar was leading 3-0, before Abouelghar won next four points to make it 4-3, then it was 4-4, 5-5, 7-7, 7-9, 8-10, 10-10, 11-10, 11-11, 11-12 and 11-13, as Abouelghar commanded 2-1 lead and won the third game in 22 minutes.
Omar took 2-0 lead in the fourth game but then was trailing 2-3, then it was 3-3. At that stage, same old Omar was finally woke up, as he just played irresistible squash and completely outclassed Abouelghar, who pushed and used word shame against referee’s decision and was given stroke for bad conduct. Omar was just running away with the game taking 9-4 lead and it was 10-4, when Abouelghar fought back to make it 6-10, but Omar shut the doors and took the game 11-6 to force the final into fifth and deciding game.
Omar took 3-1 lead in the fifth game, then it was 3-5, 5-5, 5-8, but Omar them fought back and made it 8-8, before Abouelghar took next two points to make it 10-8. It was 9-10 before Abouelghar played a superb drop shot to win the game 11-9 in 15 minutes, thus won the title in 78 minutes of highly-tensed final.
The winner was awarded cash prize of $3,610 and winning trophy, while the runner-up was awarded $2,470 and trophy. Abouelghar was awarded 440 PSA points for winning, while Omar earned 290 points. Both the semifinalists also won 175 points each.
Air Marshal Saeed M Khan, Acting Chief of Air Staff, was the chief guest on the occasion, while Serena Hotels COO Aziz Bolani, diplomats, former world champions Jahangir Khan, Qamar Zaman, Jansher Khan, PSB DG Dr Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera, DDG Facilities Agha Amjedullah, Serena Hotels coordinator Jehanzeb Ghafoor with federation guests and school kids were also present on the final.
The arena still gave deserted look as the PSF failed to fill even 200 seats. Same old story was repeated, as the federation was not in a mood to even provide drinking water to the journalists and school kids, who arrived almost two hours prior to the start of the final. After covering the final, the journalists left the complex as a protest, as the PSF treasurer used highly objectionable words and said the journalists were not invited on Walima ceremony. Only VVIPs and front row persons were provided juices and other facilities while rest of the spectators and media persons were left on their own. National Press Club (NPC) president Shahryar M Khan made it clear that the federation official must not behave like this. “We demand respect, if PSF president Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman doesn’t take notice of the issue, we will boycott the upcoming President Gold Cup International Squash event next month,” Shaharyar said.