HAMILTON (Bermuda), Nov 30: Gregory Gaultier stretched his impressive run at squash’s World Open with a victory Thursday over former world number one John White carrying him into the semi-finals without losing a game.

In another fine contest, world number one Amr Shabana lifted his game to its highest level of the tournament so far to quell the threat of his predecessor Thierry Lincou.

Gaultier, the British Open champion from France, beat the US-based Scottish international 12-10, 11-6, 11-5 after saving two game points in the first in a match notable for two explosive incidents.

The first occurred when White hit the ball into the tin three successive times to lose the opening game, following it by hurling his racket across the court and getting a conduct warning.

The other occurred on match point when White was awarded a let when it seemed that Gaultier had no fair view of the ball and when a penalty stroke seemed inevitable.

So inevitable that the crowd laughed at the anti-climax, and even White saw the funny side of it, while Gaultier came out of the court in a disbelieving fury, waving his racket like a scythe at the referee.

Perhaps it was fortunate that what he said was inaudible.

But he quickly finished it off at the second attempt, and then said: “I just won, that’s the most important thing.

“The quality was not the best, but sometimes you have to deal with it. As long as I go through, I go through. Tomorrow is another day.

“I am not going to say anything about the referee, but I tried to keep my calm.

“I didn’t do anything in particular in my game. He was hitting the ball hard and it’s not easy to control the ball when he hits that hard.”

Few people control the rallies against White, even when he’s making mistakes, and Gaultier’s performance was far better than he suggested.

He may have been self-critical to help himself raise his performance level even higher for his semi-final with Nick Matthew, the US Open champion from England, who held a match point against him in Hong Kong a fortnight ago.

Matthew also won impressively, coming through 11-8, 11-6, 11-4 against compatriot James Willstrop, the fourth seed, who looked jaded after his two comebacks from two games down.

Amr Shabana beat Frenchman Lincou 10-12, 11-6, 12-10, 11-5 in a 64-minute contest that was much closer than the statistics suggest with a lot hanging on a pivotal third game in which Lincou led 9-8.

Although the former number was playing in a more creative, positive style than he used to, and doing so effectively, when it came to the fourth game Shabana had a little extra energy to push through.

It ended Lincou’s mission to regain the title he so historically won in Doha three years ago when he became the first Frenchman ever to win it.

“To beat Thierry I had to play my maximum plus 10 per cent,” Shabana said of the 31-year-old from Marseille, whose performance suggested his ambition to compete at the top for another two years may be realistic.

Shabana now has a semi-final with David Palmer, the defending champion from Australia, who overwhelmed Alex Gough, the 36-year-old Welshman who is the oldest player on the tour, by 11-5, 11-4, 11-4.—AFP