2016 Review - Part one

The end of the year is traditionally the opportunity to look back into the past twelve months. During the next two weeks, we offer you a review of what happened in squash in 2016 through 10 facts. Here is part one ... 

Fact 1: When squash goes viral

Let's dive into this 2016 review with an entertaining topic. In the last few months, we've seen players display some incredible athleticism and do everything they could to retrieve what seemed to be a winning shot. In 2015, Miguel Angel Rodriguez and Kanzy El Dafrawy - among others - had pulled off amazing dives, but this year it was Mathieu Castagnet and Paul Coll's turn, not only to expose squash on the social networks but also to reach media such as ESPN or Euronews. At the end of February at the Windy City Open, the Frenchman scored almost 300k views with the 'Outrageous Dive & Winner: Best retrieval ever?” video on the SquashTV YouTube page, where he goes to the floor to retrieve a trickle boast from England's Daryl Selby, to then stand back up at the speed of light and sprint to the back of the court to hit a winner. The reaction of his opponent says it all … A few days later, New Zealander Paul Coll – perhaps inspired by the French number two – went for two consecutive dives at the Canary Wharf Classic, causing an unforced error from James Willstrop. Once again watch the reaction from his opponent, pointing at all the areas of the court where Coll dived, with a big smile on his face. Who said that English people didn't have a sense of humour?

Photo credit: squashmad

Watch the videos on YouTube

MATHIEU CASTAGNET

PAUL COLL

Fact 2: The curse of the Artist

Squash lovers are getting used to Ramy Ashour's incredible comebacks but – unfortunately - to his multiple injuries too. Flagged by many observers as the most talented player to have ever stepped on a squash court, the mercurial Egyptian only played five tournaments in 2016, as he did the previous year. After four months without playing a match, he reached the final of the British Open in March, but his retirement in the first round in El Gouna was followed by another four months out. Once again he pulled off one of his victorious comebacks in Hong Kong at the end of August, winning his 28th World Series event. Then he was only able to play 11 points in front of the Pyramids of Giza before he had to conceed the match to fellow Egyptian Ali Farag. Who could have thought he would reach his fifth World Championship final a few weeks later? But not being able to come back on court in the fourth game against Karim Abdel Gawad was certainly one of the toughest moments in his career. Especially since it was the third time it was happening to him in 2016 on home soil. “Whatever happens in my life, I have to accept it. I’ve been through a lot, and every time I fall down I learn. I keep on learning the hard way. As long as I’m still breathing, I’ll just keep trying, because squash is the thing which makes me the happiest.” Those were his words during the prize ceremony. We hope Ramy Ashour will be happy as often as possible in 2017 ...

2016, another year filled with comebacks and injuries for Ramy Ashour (Photo credits: worldsquash.org and squashsite) 

Fact 3: El Sherbini on top of the world

Nour El Sherbini became the youngest World Champion in squash history (Photo credit: www.nst.com.my) 

She is only 21 years old and her list of records, achievements and awards is growing month after month … World Junior Champion at 13, Nour El Sherbini had broken in the top 5 at the beginning of 2016, and has established a real dominance in the last few months: first World Series title at the Tournament of Champions, followed by a British Open-World Championship double which took her to the top of the rankings. She hasn't won a major event since then, mostly because she crossed path with opponents playing out of their skin on the day. But that's what you get when you are at the top of the tree, don't you? On the other hand, El Sherbini is consistently reaching semi-finals and finals, and as a result there is still a substantial gap between her and the other contenders to the world number 1 spot. Nevertheless, she will certainly be determined to put her hands on another major trophy at the ToC, which starts on the 12^th of January in New York.

Fact 4: The Egyptian Powerhouse

You may feel like we are talking about Egypt a lot, but it's hard to do otherwise: their stranglehold on world squash - both in men's and women's – is stronger than ever. In October and November, there were seven Egyptian in the men's top 10, a first in the sport's history. And in December, Raneem El Welily joined Nour El Sherbini and Nouran Gohar in the world’s top 3, following the footsteps of Australian trio Michelle Martin, Sarah Fitz-Gerald and Liz Irving. As expected, they won the World Team Championship a few weeks ago. Egyptian players clinched 13 of the 16 major individual events played in 2016 (the exceptions being the World Series finals won by Grégory Gaultier and Laura Massaro and the US Open won by Camille Serme). This relentless domination extends to the junior circuit, and final stages of major tournaments are usually “Egypt v the rest of the world”. This should be the case again at the British Junior Open next week, where Egypt got 6 of the 8 titles in 2016.

Egyptian players have won almost all the major events in 2016 (Photo credits: worldsquash.org, squashsite, squashmad and PSAWorldTour) 

Fact 5: Squash's New Generation

Although the major titles are still shared between a handful of top players on the men's PSA World Tour, a few young ones pulled off some significant results in 2016 and as a result climbed up the rankings. First of all Karim Abdel Gawad, whom we'll talk about next week. But there are also his compatriots Marwan El Shorbagy and Ali Farag, 24 and 23 years old respectively. Now consistent members of the world top 10, they both won the biggest title of their career in Zurich and Al-Ahram, overcoming Grégory Gaultier and Mohamed El Shorbagy. The next step for them is to become contenders in the World Series events. Fares Dessouky had a difficult time after a meteoric rise in 2014, but he's back on track as shown by his two quarters finals in Hong Kong and the World Championship. Mohamed Abouelghar is getting closer to a major result, having lost his last three five-setter in World Series. 2014 and 2015 World Junior Champion Diego Elias is getting better tournament after tournament. The Peruvian got a few top 10 scalps in 2016 and just won his biggest trophy in Canada. He's a little older but 26 year-old Grégoire Marche finally got his breakthrough in the fall, with his first 25k in Nantes, a win over Nick Matthew in San Francisco and a first quarter in a World Series event in Qatar. New Zealander Paul Coll should reach the top 20 in a few days, thanks to a sensational week in St George's Hill, where he beat four players ranked between 11 and 18. Other players having made a significant improvement in 2016 include Zahed Mohamed, Yip Tsz Fung, Declan James, Abdulla Mohd Al Tamimi, Lucas Serme, Joshua Masters, Youssef Soliman etc. In 2017 we'll also have an eye on Malaysia's Eain Yow Ng, who won the World Junior Championship in August and just broke into the top 100. Nicol David thinks he has what it takes to be world champion and she certainly knows what she's talking about.

Some of the most improved players in 2016 (Photo credits: squashsite, squashmad, usopensquash.com, WSF) 

Don't miss the second part of our 2016 review next week. We give you some hints of the topics which will be covered: old guard, Egypt v the rest of the world, world number 1, new world champion, strength in depth ...