LIVERPOOL (England), May 10: Gregory Gaultier lost his British Open title in less than 40 minutes on Saturday as the tournament continued to produce shock results.

On Friday Ramy Ashour, the Super Series champion who had been many people’s unofficial favourite for the title, was beaten, and now the world No 2 from France followed him with unexpected speed.

Gaultier was beaten 11-9, 11-7, 11-3 by Egypt’s Karim Darwish, who played one of the finest matches of his career.

From the middle of the second game onwards he began to control the match, denying Gaultier pace and keeping it tight until he himself had an opening with which to apply pressure.

The man from Aix-en-Provence grew increasingly frustrated, and may also have been suffering from a dip in confidence after an injury-affected year so far.

Gaultier led 7-5 in the second and stood at 3-3 in the third, but then the match ran away from him quickly. He ended by hitting the last ball into the roof in disgust.

The recently-married Darwish who gets coaching, especially in psychology, from his new wife, Engy Kheirallah, a top 20 player herself.

Darwish is also coached by Amir Wagih, the Egyptian national coach, and had become determined to make up for his defeat against Gaultier last month in Kuwait.

“I was ahead in all games and my head wasn’t there,” he said. “I was so frustrated because I wasn’t focussed so I told myself I had to do that and to win. I had everything in squash and I had to believe in myself.”

It earned him a semi-final in the slot into which his compatriot Amr Shabana, the top-seeded world champion was seeded to come through.

Gaultier was understandably too disappointed to talk about his performance immediately after the match and waved reporters away.

However there was French consolation when Isabelle Stoehr became the first woman from her country ever to reach the British Open semi-finals.

The world No 18 from Montpellier has only been a qualifier but won her fifth match when Natalie Grinham, the Commonwealth champion from Australia, retired with a thigh injury.

The score was 6-9, 9-4, 1-0 retired, but Grinham began to feel the problem some time before that.

“It happened in the second game,” she said, “Something went and I went it. As the game went on it hurt more and more. “I couldn’t put any weight on it. At 6-4 I said to Tommy [Berden, her husband] ‘send for a physio’.

“Sometimes you feel pain and it goes away, but this didn’t go away.”

Stoehr, who has been playing some of the finest squash of her career, said: “Fifty percent of me is happy and fifty percent not. I was ready for her. People say I am not fit, but this is my fifth match and this is a good reply to people who say this. Everything is a bonus now.”

On Friday, Malaysia’s Mohammed Azlan Iskandar pulled off a sensational upset when he beat second-seeded Ashour in four games to take an unexpected place in the quarter-finals.It was clear from the outset that the 20-year-old world No 4 from Cairo — wearing full length white surgical stockings — was suffering in some way when the Malaysian outsider romped to a first game win in just five minutes.

Despite severely restricted movement, the sport’s rising star was able to use his sensational racquet skills to win the second game — but it always looked unlikely that Ashour could win the match and finally fell 1-11, 11-5, 8-11, 8-11 in 41 minutes.

Iskandar next plays Thierry Lincou, the 32-year-old former world No 1 who outplayed Alex Gough of Wales in three straight games.

Women’s favourite Nicol David earned an important chance of revenge with a 9-0, 9-4, 9-4 first round win over Madeline Perry, the former world quarter-finalist from Ireland.

Saturday’s results (x denotes seeding):

Men’s quarter-finals: Karim Darwish (EGY x7) bt Gregory Gaultier (FRA x3) 11-9, 11-7, 11-3; David Palmer (AUS x5) bt Amr Shabana (EGY x1) 11-6, 3-11, 11-5, 11-8.

Women’s quarter-finals: Isabelle Stoehr (FRA) bt Natalie Grinham (AUS x2) 6-9, 9-4, 1-0 — Natalie Grinham retired; Jenny Duncalf (ENG x5) bt Rachael Grinham (AUS x3) 9-5, 1-9, 9-7, 9-1.

Friday’s remaining results:

Men’s second round: Palmer bt Adrian Grant (ENG x12) 11-6, 11-8, 9-11, 11-6; Shabana bt John White (SCO x13) 11-9, 7-11, 11-5, 12-10; Peter Barker (ENG x8) bt Lee Beachill (ENG x9) bt 11-9, 4-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-8; James Willstrop (ENG x4) bt Ong Beng Hee (MAS x10) 11-9, 11-9, 11-7; Thierry Lincou (FRA x6) bt Alex Gough (WAL x16) 11-6, 11-3, 11-5; Mohammed Azlan Iskandar (MAS x11) Ramy Ashour (EGY x2) 11-1, 5-11, 11-8, 11-8.

Women’s first round: Jenny Duncalf (ENG x5) bt Alison Waters (ENG) 4-9, 9-2, 10-8, 9-1; Laura Lengthorn (ENG) bt Vicky Botwright (ENG x7) 11-6, 2-11, 4-11, 11-6, 11-6; Natalie Grainger (USA x4) bt Kasey Brown (AUS) 9-5, 9-3, 9-7; Shelley Kitchen (NZL x6) bt Vanessa Atkinson (NED) 8-10, 9-3, 9-4, 9-2; Nicol David (MAS x1) bt Madeline Perry (IRL) 9-0, 9-4, 9-4.—AFP