We talked about Amr Shabana before but we need to talk about him a little more. He is the number one squash player in the world. Shabana is now the best squash player on earth after he replaced Montreal s Jonathon Power in the number one spot in the latest world rankings released by the Pro Squash Association.
No Egyptian had ever looked down on the rest of the squash world like Shabana. The previous high was number three by Ahmed Barada before a mystery knife assault cut short what was a brilliant career.
Shabana, a 24-year-old from Cairo with a sizzling left hand, is the 10th player to top the world list since the inaugural rankings were produced more than 20 years ago.
He deserves being seeded the best, having won four titles in 2005, including his second world championship in Hong Kong. He also beat the famed Jonathan Power in the Canadian Classic final in Toronto last January and won the Tournament of Champions last month in New York.
Shabana cannot go higher but he can keep on winning. No sooner was he named king of the world than he won the richest squash event on the tour, beating his old nemesis Peter Nichol of England in a stirring five sets in the Virtual Spectator Bermuda Masters.
The names of players Shabana is now better than is a squash who’s who: Australia s David Palmer is in second. James Willstrop of England, Thierry Lincou of France and Australia s Anthony Ricketts round out the top five.
But, hello. Is anybody paying attention? Just to show you how much we care about sports other than football, Shabana’s singular feat was published one full week after it was announced, in the space of just a few paragraphs, buried on page three of the sports section of Al Ahram, Egypt’s most venerable daily.
Fortunately, such sad lack of media attention has not diminished the determination of our players in the least. Out of the top 100 squash players in the world, eight are Egyptians. Compare that with tennis which also comprises a ball being hit by a racket. There are 1,350 players on the ATP list; not a Pharaoh among them.
We must be doing something right in squash. Perhaps, because in tennis, your opponent is another human, whereas in squash the ball is played back to you from a wall.
On the subject of immobile objects, Murtada Mansour appears almost immovable. Mansour is back as president of Zamalek club after having been forced to step down late last year.
Mansour was forced to relinquish his post following a slew of club crises he instigated. The club’s handball team had been banished from the league after Mansour swore at the federation’s president, and Mansour’s high-profile dispute with his vice president led to an unprecedented day of knife-wielding thugs roaming the club’s grounds.
Before his tenure ended last year, then Minister of Youth Memdouh El-Beltagy had seen and heard enough, and authorized a new Zamalek president. Mansour made way for Moursi Attalluh, who was mandated to head the club until the end of the year. However, a court last week overruled El-Beltagy’s decision, declaring it null and void. So now Mansour has returned, to a chorus of mixed reviews.
Zamalek supporters dread Mansour’s return; the football team was doing great during these past months of tranquility. Rivals Ahli and their supporters wouldn’t mind Mansour remaining in the job for at least a couple of decades, so certain they are that Mansour is the best thing that has ever happened to them.
Because of an appeal made by the National Sports Council, we won’t know Mansour’s final status until Monday when a final court ruling is expected. Until then, Ahli and Zamalek supporters will be praying overtime.
Other Egyptian names making headlines this week did not evoke such passions.
Essam Abdel-Fattah became one of 23 referees going to the World Cup in June. That Abdel-Fattah was selected is no small achievement considering the horrendous officiating seen in 2002 that resulted in FIFA boss Sepp Blatter ordering that only Europeans would handle the two semi-finals and final that year. No more Third Worlders, Blatter blasted. But Abdel-Fattah is going to Germany, one of only two referees from Africa making the trip.
And Hossam Hassan keeps chugging along, invited to Berlin for the unveiling of the 2010 World Cup mascot. Hassan has won 167 caps, almost a world record, played in a record seven Africa Cup of Nations and helped Egypt win a record five ACN titles. Not bad for a 39-year-old. Not bad for anybody.
