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LAHORE: Egyptian World No 11, Amr Shabana won the World Open Squash championship maintaining a flow of up set victories defeating World No 5, Thiery Lincou of France in a four set tie here at Old Lahore Airport Four Glass Wall Court.

Shabana won 15-14, 9-15, 15-11, 15-7 in one hour and 25 minutes to post his fourth upset victory in a row becoming the first Egyptian to claim this prestigious title.

The 27-year old Egyptian who beat defending champion, the world no 3, David Palmer of Australia, Anthony Rickets also from Australia and the world no 6, and countryman Karim Darwish the world no 7, gave another sterling performance in front of a full house to claim the most elite title of his ten years squash career.

"It is a dream come true, I was looking forward to this moment since last ten years and I am really delighted to win it", he said after the match. "I gave extra ordinary performance in the tournament by upsetting a number of players and it is good to have such a show in such a big tournament ", he maintained.

Shabana said he was confident to beat his French opponent despite his second game loss. The runners up said it was disappointing to lose the final but acknowledged the better game and performance of his rival.

Amr came from behind in the first set to equalise at 12-12 and 14-14 before being at distance on occasions at the early stages of the set. Both the players exhibited fast paced attacking game and greater recovery but it was Shabana who went for first hand instant kill and won the set.

Amr Shabana was erratic in the second set and most of his attempts to place the ball ended in frustration by hitting the tin and in the process he hist six tins compared to four in the first set. Lincou trilled with lovely cross courts and some sizzling serves to win the second set and it seemed that he has fully recovered to put up strong opposition in the remaining part of the game.

Shabana who argued with match referee Jamshed Gul on many "lets" was again back into the game when he fought the third set with superior match plan, balanced foot work displaying remarkable reach to all parts of the courts, picking up ball from difficult angles with acrobatic efforts amid applause.

The second set loss proved a lesson server for him and he tied the scores at 2-2,6-6 in the third set in which Lincou killed the ball in the front with superb drop shots to equalise at 11-11. Shabana threw away five points in a row in a desperate move of placing the ball besides going for unsuccessful finish.

Afterwards Shabana struck hard hitting with superb spin drop shots and volley shots to cut down Lincou's challenge taking 2-1 lead in the match. The fourth set fell short of expectations and Lincou fell tamely in just 13 minutes and Shabana marked his victory by throwing his arms in the air and a supporting crowd cheered his success.

Shabana aggression was at peak and he showed furious stroke play taking 4-2,9-3,12-3 lead. Lincou seemed ran out of stamina when Shabana exchanged a few short lived rallies and built up the lead with forceful shots eventually winning the match.

General Musharraf was also introduced with representatives of main sponsor and co-sponsors of the 10-day tournament. A cheque of US $ 24000 and US $ 15000 were presented to Shabana and Lincou, respectively by the sponsors.

The President gave away the winning and runners up trophies to both the finalists.