Kiwi Paul Coll has seen his quest for a maiden world squash crown end in the semi-finals, as he crashed to Egyptian rival Mohamed Elshorbagy in five games.
Playing in front of a partisan Cairo crowd, the world No.1 - the only non-Egyptian left in the tournament - dropped the opening game, roared back to win the next two, but could not hold off the hometown favourite, who prevailed 11-4 8-11 10-12 11-8 11-7 in 109 minutes.
Third-ranked Elshorbagy (aka 'The Best of Alexandria') will now chase his second world crown against the winner of Ali Farag v Mostafa Asal in the final.
The contest was Coll's second consecutive five-game thriller, after he went the distance to beat Egyptian Tarek Momen over two hours in the quarter-finals.
After dropping the opening set against Elshorbagy, the two-time British Open champion fought back to take the second, but needed five straight points to take the third, after facing gamepoint at 10-7.
With the match levelled at 2-2, Coll, 30, fell into a 6-1 hole early in the decider and could not dig his way out, eventually losing on a denied let call. Clearly frustrated, he quickly congratulated his opponent, before storming off court.
"Paul is an amazing athlete," said Elshorbagy. "He inspired me so much - the guy has been unbelievable for the past six months.
"Since he won the British last year, he went to another level and I went to another level, but the opposite way. We haven't played in such a long time and I've been waiting for a long time to get on court with him, to be honest.
"I hope he is not too hard on himself. I been world No.1 and seeded one at the world champs, and never done it before... no-one understands how much he had on his plate this week, except the people who were in that position before."
Elshorbagy took a shot at Coll's coach, Rob Owen, for a "stupid article" that predicted no-one could beat his charge at the tournament, if he played to his best.
"His player had so much pressure on him this week and when I read this article, me and my team just laughed, because we knew he just doubled the pressure on his player.
"Thanks for him, he gave me such an advantage winning that fifth game, because I'm sure Paul had so much on his mind in that fifth game today."
Coll's next outing will be the El Gouna tournament in Egypt.
