MANCHESTER (England), Oct 19: Amr Shabana, the first Egyptian to win three World Opens, lost his title in the semi-finals on Saturday to a man who was once his fan.

Shabana, who has been world No 1 for 31 successive months, seemed odds on to continue his progress when he led 9-8 in the fourth game against his 21-year-old compatriot Ramy Ashour, but could not push his advantage home and was beaten 11-6, 7-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-7.

There were no such problems, however, for women’s top seed Nicol David as the Malaysian golden girl reached the final without losing a game.

David’s 11-6, 11-8, 11-6 victory over the surprise survivor from Ireland, Madeline Perry, was her fourth straight-game success of the week.

It would have been no consolation for Shabana to know that he had taken part in the best match of the tournament.

“I had my chance in that fourth game and I didn’t take it,” said the former champion, frustrated that he had let slip the chance to join an elite group comprising the two legendary Pakistanis, Jahangir and Jansher Khan, and the great Australian Geoff Hunt, who have won four or more World Opens.

Instead he allowed a volleying chance for Ashour to thunder the ball across court into the sidewall nick, making the ball roll dead, and was then unable to contain two further attacks from the younger man.

In the fifth, Ashour was inspired and he shot to a 7-0 lead before Shabana began to claw his way back, getting to 6-9 and 7-10.

Ashour will play in the final another Egyptian, Karim Darwish, the seventh seed, who also confounded the seedings by beating David Palmer, the British Open champion from Australia 11-6, 11-9, 11-8.

However, the result was less of a surprise than it seemed, for Darwish was on top against Palmer in the British Open five months ago, when he sustained an injury which forced him to retire.

Palmer, twice the former champion, was so frustrated with his performance that he got himself a code violation warning for hitting the ball out of the court.

Meanwhile, David’s bid to regain the world title will face its last test on Sunday against England’s Vicky Botwright who made the final when Jenny Duncalf was forced to retire with an injury.

David’s next opponent, Botwright, had already shocked Rachael Grinham, the defending world champion from Australia and Saturday survived a semi-final with Duncalf when the current England number one retired with a thigh injury.

Botwright won the opening games 11-3, 11-6.

Semi-final results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Men’s: 4-Ramy Ashour (Egypt) bt 1-Amr Shabana (Egypt) 11-6, 7-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-7; 7-Karim Darwish (Egypt) bt 5-David Palmer (Australia) 11-6, 11-9, 11-8.Women’s: Vicky Botwright (England) bt 5-Jenny Duncalf (England) 11-3, 11-6 – Duncalf retired; 1-Nicol David (Malaysia) bt 14-Madeline Perry (Ireland) 11-6, 11-8, 11-6.—AFP