Gregory Gaultier added weight to his claim that he will regain squash's world number one ranking this year as he reached the semi-finals of the first World Series tournament of 2012 on Tuesday.
The third-seeded Frenchman did that by overcoming the man of the moment, Amr Shabana, the four times former world champion from Egypt who had beaten him en route to the 2011 World Series finals title only three weeks ago.
On Tuesday, Gaultier was in more patient and thoughtful mode, gaining revenge by a score of 11-9, 5-11, 11-5, 11-5 in front of tens of thousands of passing commuters at New York's Grand Central Station in the Tournament of Champions.
It was a cagey match of manoeuvring rallies and clever placements, but the man from Aix-en-Provence looked the likely winner from the mid-point onwards.
His only setbacks were Shabanas phase of exceptional creativity in the second game, and an attempted boast off the back wall which accidentally launched the ball out of court and almost into one of the terminal's Vanderbilt Hall chandeliers.
Gaultier now has a repeat of the World Open final he lost three months ago in Rotterdam against Nick Matthew. The top-seeded Englishman enterprisingly recovered from 6-10 down in the first game against the impressive young Egyptian Mohammed El Shorbagy, winning 12-10, 11-7, 11-5 in a match of exceptional pace and flair.
Gaultier voiced his determination to get the better not only of Matthew but all his rivals.
"I am no longer a kid and may not recover between matches so well," he said. "But at the age of 29 it's more in your head -- you are more experienced and tougher.
"I want to win as many tournaments as possible and reach number one again."
In contrast the womens top seed, Rachael Grinham, the 35-year-old former World Open champion from Australia, looked out of sorts and was well beaten in straight games by Jaclyn Hawkes, the fifth seeded New Zealander.
However her second-seeded younger sister Natalie Grinham, the four times former World Open runner-up, did reach the semi-finals, overcoming Sarah Kippax, the sixth seed from England, by 11-3, 11-4, 12-10.
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