British players have been feeling the heat in what is one of the most spectacular settings for any sporting event. An all-glass court with the pyramids of Giza as the backdrop is the stage for the 2006 al-Ahram World Open Squash Championship, where the unseeded Egyptians Ramy Ashour and Wael El Hindi pulled off upsets against higher-ranked English players in the second round of the PSA Tour event.
Ashour, twice junior champion, beat the tenth seed, Lee Beachill, from Yorkshire. El Hindi defeated Nick Matthew, the seventh seed and British National champion. Peter Nicol, of England, the sixth seed and 1999 champion, ended what was the most successful squash career of the past decade when he lost to the Frenchman Thierry Lincou, the third seed, in the quarter finals yesterday.