LAHORE, May 3: World No 9, Karim Darwish annexed the Pak Telecom International Squash Championship when World No 16th Amr Shabana conceded the all-Egyptian final after he sustained injury at the Punjab Squash Complex on Saturday.

Shabana who had lost the first two games 15-12 and 15-7 rather tamely decided to conced the match when he was 6-2 down in the third game. After a long rally at 5-2 Shabana dropped a shot and in the next moment he decided to forfeit the match. “I have been feeling pain in bone of left heel, since yesterday. I took the risk for the final, but the pain did not allow me to continue”, Shabana told Dawn after the match.

“The pain has been started during the semifinal against Mansoor Zaman, but it was not so severe then. I fixed pad under the heel as a temporary treatment but I have to work hard against Darwesh and that resulted in the pain”.

Darwish who had completed hat trick by winning the third consecutive tournament in Pakistan said that he was expecting a tough final, but Shabana’ injury gave him an easy win.

“We both are playing each other in home country for practice and he is a good player”, Darwish said.

“I was not aware about Shabana’s injury before the final. I think he hide it from me as a tactic”, Darwesh said who won the Chief of Air Staff and Chief of Naval Staff tournament.

Darwish said that after this victory his World ranking had been improved to eight.

Darwish won the first game in only nine minutes and led from start to finish. Darwish’s court coverage, chasing the ball and calculated strokes were a treat to watch. With his cross shots, he outwitted Shabana on several occasions. Shabana in order to kil Darwish shots made unforced errors and conceded points easily.

Darwish got off to a fine start and had gained 12-6 lead in as Shabana hit the board six times and also conceded two points when strokes were awarded to Darwish. Shabana staged a partial recovery but it was shortlived as Darwish showed his class to wrap up the game 15-12.

Darwesh maintained his superiority in the second game and surged 7-3 ahead and countered little resistance from his fellow countryman who appeared to have lost the edge to lose the game 15-7.

Darwish was not ready to show any slackness despite 2-0 up and le 6-2 in the third game before Shabana surrendered the match.

Darwesh besides the trophy also received a cheque of US$ 4180 while Shabana pocketed US$ 2860 as beaten finalist.

Chief guest, Punjab’s Chief Minister, Pervez Elahi later announced a grant of Rs10m for the completion of the Nishter Park International Squash Complex.

The construction work at the complex is suspended since 1994 due to shortage of funds. Punjab Squash Association now has a total amount of Rs 350 million. The total cost of the project is likely to be around Rs 700m.