KUWAIT CITY - Top-seeded Karim Darwish, one of the 'big three' Egyptians who are helping to give their country unprecedented dominance of world squash, was knocked out of the World Open here on Tuesday on a day of surprise and confusion.

Darwish, Amr Shabana and Ramy Ashour helped Egypt to succeed England as world team champions last month, but now the man who topped the rankings for the first the months of the year was halted in four games by an old English adversary, James Willstrop.

Willstrop, normally such a fluent shot-maker, was very patient in his 11-7, 11-7, 3-11, 11-9 win, and it was apparently a major upset that the eleventh seed should wrap up so fine a win in such well-ordered way.

But Willstrop has succeeded against Darwish more often than not, having been victor in all of their four matches in the last three years, and knew he had a really good chance.

"I didn't plan to play the way I did. I just played cagey because that was the way it panned out. It seemed to be the right way to respond to what was happening," Willstrop said, referring to the fact that containment seemed a comfortable response to Darwish's early assertiveness.

Willstrop played tight and accurately and usually scored either when Darwish made a mistake, or played short, allowing him an opportunity to get in with a tight drop or quick kill.

He also focussed well when it mattered, moving steadily from 5-6 to 11-7 in both the first two games, and working extremely hard to rescue the fourth game from a 4-7 deficit.