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Okay, so Amr Shabana is a little rusty.

The 28-year-old Egyptian — ranked No. 1 in the world — admitted it Saturday night after he fell victim to the onslaught of youthful Ramy Ashour, who won the $70,000 Pace Canadian Squash Classic 11-2, 11-8, 8-11, 11-7 in 38 minutes.

Shabana hadn't played a tournament since December, when he decided to take a time out with a wrist problem so painful, he said, that it felt like somebody had hit it with a hammer.

And he has other things on his mind. His wife is expecting a child in another week. He's going home.

"I'm far from being match fit,'' said Shabana. "I spent the last two months just resting. I had a long season last year. I'm just playing without the pressure of winning. I just want to play. To make it to the final is not so bad.

"I could have played better tonight, but you can't win every time.''

Last year, Shabana, top-ranked then, too, was ousted after the second round in a major upset, taking things a bit for granted. On Saturday night, he felt out of it. "When you don't play a lot of professional matches, it's tougher to get into it.''

Ashour plied Shabana with tricky, difficult, speedy shots, sending them to the back of the court. Shabana sometimes defeated himself, hitting balls constantly into the tin, the out of bounds area at the front of the court.

Shabana came alive in the third game, but Ashour would not be denied.

"He wasn't really there tonight,'' said Ashour, ranked No. 2 in the world. "Maybe he was tired from yesterday's match.''

Shabana said his main goal in the tournament was to see if he could play at all. "It's a good start,'' he said. "Reaching the final of a big tournament is not so bad….I'm kind of happy that I'm just playing.''

He lost the first game very quickly, admitting he was too comfortable. "I was happy,'' he said. "Maybe just being in the final, I got too carried away about being happy about not being injured. Coming into the tournament, I didn't know if I was going to lose in the first round, or the second round.''

While Shabana is going home — he won't play again until a match in Cairo in April, Ashour is playing a couple of exhibition games in Calgary and Edmonton.

"Calgary isn't too far away, is it?'' said the gregarious Egyptian.

The Canadian Classic is the third event of a North American Players Cup circuit, and Ashour is so far in front, he seems untouchable. But he may not play the lucrative final in Boston. He's also trying to recover from plantar fascitis in a foot and says he needs to rest it.