Another double for Egyptian squash in Chicago

Published : 2018-03-01 12:13:30
Categories : Squash news around the world

Main story: El Tayeb and El Shorbagy are 2018 Windy City Open champions

The most lucrative World Series tournament in the history of squash ended last night in Chicago, and it was once again double delight for Egypt. While Nour El Tayeb had to fight incredibly hard all week to win her second major title, Mohamed ElShorbagy did not drop a game and is back to World No.1.

Nour El Tayeb and Mohamed El Shorbagy are 2018 Windy City Open champions (Photo credit: PSA World Tour)

A few weeks ago in New York, Simon Rösner had ended the domination of Egyptian squash players in 2017-2018. Joelle King came very close to reproduce this performance last night in Chicago, for her first ever final in a World Series event. If she had converted one of her two match balls at 10-8 in the fifth game, the World No.9 (now 7 in this morning's new rankings, see below) would have become the first New-Zealand squash female player to win a major tournament since Carol Owens at the 2003 World Championship. But once again Nour El Tayeb showed extraordinary resilience to clinch the next four points, and her second WS title after the US Open earlier this season. Both ladies had a tough route to the final - having played a few 5-setters - and understandably had ups and downs during the match. But they still fought incredibly hard, and treated the audience of the University Club of Chicago's Cathedral Hall with a highly entertaining display. El Tayeb took the opener – despite King holding four game balls – but from then on her opponent took the upper hand in the next two games. In the third, it was King's time to save five game balls to take it 13-11 in the tie-break. But like she did in the previous rounds - she most notably clawed a 2-game deficit to see off World No.1 Nour El Sherbini in the quarters - the Egyptian was not going to go down without a fight and leveled at 2-games all. Both players were running on fumes in the decider, and the momentum swung back and forth until King was 10-8 up. The rest is history ... “I can’t believe it,” said El Tayeb. “I felt like I lost this match three or four times! I was down in the fourth, then I was down in the fifth but looking over at Haitham [Effat, her squash coach] and Ali [Farag, her husband] - I’m also very thankful that Raneem [El Weilily] and Tarek [Momen] who came to cheer me on - they gave me the encouragement. But I really can’t believe that I won the tournament. Everyday I’ve woken up I’ve felt tired but I knew I could do it. I think I have to give my physical fitness coach a very big bonus!

Meanwhile, Mohamed El Shorbagy came out on top against younger brother Marwan. It was the second meeting between them in a major final, following their clash in the PSA Men’s Squash World Championship in December. After losing in the second round in the ToC, the Beast of Alexandria reestablished his dominance on the PSA World Tour in 2017-2018, having now won six of the eight tournaments he featured in. Like he did in his four previous rounds in Chicago, El Shorbagy Sr did not drop a game in the final. The Egyptian has returned to World No.1 in the new rankings published this morning (but he would have whatever his result in the WCO). “It’s been an incredible season,” said El Shorbagy during the prize giving ceremony. “After last season – I worked really hard, set new goals that I wanted to achieve, and it just shows that nothing can stop anyone achieving their dream if they work hard for it. I took it match by match and I’m really glad to get through this match with my brother. He has played incredible this season and he will still get better. He is learning every day this is the second time we play in a big final and his first world series title will come at the right time – I just wanted to keep it a little bit later then today. I remember when I lost last month in New York, I felt like I needed to do more training and it’s the part of the season when there are a lot of matches, so you have to be careful of the tournaments you are playing. I want to thank David Palmer for his help and hopefully I will be back again here next year.

Quotes from the PSA World Tour website

El Tayeb and El Shorbagy's celebrations were very different, exactly like their route to the title in Chicago (Photo credit: PSA World Tour)

There were a few other highlights before the finals:

The shock win of 17-year old Hania El Hammamy over squash legend Nicol David was the Malaysian's first defeat in the opening round of a PSA World Series event since the Seattle Open in May 2002 - since when she has played 110 WS events (Source: www.squashinfo.com)! --- The last appearance of Nick Matthew in Chicago was ended prematurely, because of a great performance from Cameron Pilley in the second round. --- We often hear that to come back to her best after a serious injury, a sportsperson needs twice more time than the period she was sidelined for. Amanda Sobhy does not believe this theory: only a few weeks after a return at the ToC, she beat her second top 10 player (Nouran Gohar) before surrendering after a good fight against Joelle King. --- It had been a few months since Ramy Ashour was struck by an injury. Although he finished his match against Tarek Momen, the Egyptian's movement was clearly hindered from the second game on, seemingly because of his recurring hamstring issue.

BREAKING - A major announcement was made during the prize giving ceremony: Chicago will host the PSA World Championship in 2019, becoming the most lucrative squash tournament ever with a record-breaking $1 million prize fund - split equally across both the men's and women's draws! 

Other squash news in February

--- Just a few hours after the Windy City Open delivered its outcome, the PSA published the new squash world rankings. As expected, Mohamed El Shorbagy is back to World No.1 - a position he had held for 28 months from the end of 2014 to the beginning of 2017 - at the expense of Grégory Gaultier. Tarek Momen and Simon Rösner exchange their ranking (6th and 7th), while Ramy Ashour is back to the top 10 and Diego Elias drops 3 places (13th). Among the players who made significant rises in the top 30, there are Miguel Angel Rodriguez (16th, +5), Nicolas Mueller (18th, +6 and 1 place below his HWR) and Max Lee (22nd, +5). The top 4 remains unchanged in the women's rankings, but Nouran Gohar overcomes Camille Serme to rise to 5th, while Joelle King goes up to 7th at the expense of Nicol David and Sarah-Jane Perry, hence her best ranking since he returned from injury in 2015. Donna Urquhart, Victoria Lust and Joshna Chinappa are all up one place (14th, 15th, and 16th) while Emily Whitlock is down to 17th (-3). Just behind her, Amanda Sobhy is back to the 20 (+12) thanks to a good run in the Windy City Open.

Mohamed El Shorbagy is back to World No.1 (Photo credit: PSA World Tour)

--- Before the Windy City Open, there were a few other squash tournaments on the PSA World Tour in February for some of the top players. A few days after reaching a highest world ranking of #4, Marwan El Shorbagy won the second $70,000 tournament of his career in Detroit. The Alexandria-born had to overcome a huge resistance from Paul Coll in the final, coming out as the victor in 96 minutes, 11-9 in the fifth game. “It was the longest match of my career," El Shorbagy said afterwards. "It doesn’t get any tougher than beating Paul Coll on this court with how it plays, because the points never ends.". Coll was the only player to play both in "Motor City" and then in Sweden ($70,000) a few days later, where he reached the semis but had to surrender against Ali Farag. Despite losing the second game in the final against in form Simon Rösner, the Egyptian controlled most of the match and won his first title since the US Open after a few runner-up and semi-finalist finishes. “I'm over the moon to have won the title here at this great event,” said Farag. “I've heard great things about this event for years and it exceeded all my expectations." Formerly an exhibition squash tournament, the Cambridge Cup upgraded to a $50,000 PSA event this year. After a difficult 2017 year, Max Lee seems to be getting back to the form which carried him close to the world top 10 at the end of 2015. In Toronto, the Hong Kong player won the 13th trophy of his career, and the second one in a row after Pittsburgh in January. To do so, he downed two higher ranked players - Cesar Salazar and Ryan Cuskelly in the final. On the women's tour, Joelle King clinched one of the biggest victories of her career in the Cleveland Classic ($50,000). She was dominant in the final against world #2 and reigning World Champion, Raneem El Welily, 3-0 (11-8, 11-8, 11-8). The New-Zealander has very few points to defend until June and should continue her rise in the world rankings.

Quotes from the PSA World Tour website

They fell short in Chicago but Ali Farag, Joelle King and Marwan El Shorbagy had collected some honours earlier in February (Photo credits: SquashSite)

--- The two more prestigious squash National Championships were held in mid-February. Wales' Tesni Evans made history in the British Nationals in Manchester, becoming the first non-English female player to win the title. World No.12 had ended Laura Massaro’s title defense in the semi-finals and was in irresistible form against four-time champion Alison Waters in the final, sealing the match in straight games. “I tried to say I was going into the match not feeling any pressure, but I did, I was very nervous,” Evans said afterwards. “But I’m proud with how I played the match and even prouder to become the first ever Welsh winner of the British Nationals!” It was an all-Yorkshire battle in the men’s final as old squash rivals Nick Matthew and James Willstrop clashed in their 62nd meeting in all competitions, with Matthew leading the head-to-head record 48-13 coming into the match. The two rivals had contested five British Nationals finals previously – with Matthew winning all three – and the veteran 37-year-old went two games up, only to see Willstrop make the most of a strong start in the third to claw a game back. Matthew was back in the ascendancy though in the fourth and he pulled away to complete an 11-7, 12-10, 8-11, 11-6 victory to capture his 7th successive British Nationals crown. “Getting a 10th National title was one of my main goals for my last season," said Matthew. 

Ali Farag and Nour El Tayeb had made history at the US Open a few months ago, and the married couple did it again in the Egyptian Nationals, whose draws were stronger than ever: Hania El Hammamy, who had benefited from Nour El Sherbini's walkover, was the only one among the eight semi-finalists not to be a world top 10 player. In the final, Nour El Tayeb won comprehensively against Raneem El Welily, possibly a bit tired after a long match with Gohar the day before. It was the third national title for the World No.3, but the first for her husband - Ali Farag - who successively Karim Abdel Gawad and Marwan El Shorbagy in the final, despite losing the first game. "It's incredible," he said. "I don't know what it is, but whenever Nour wins, I seem to win too! So many people underestimate the Egyptian Nationals, but for us, it's huge, it's like another World Open, and I'm extremely proud to have won today and it's a immense honour for both of us to win it."

For different reasons, Tesni Evans, Nick Matthew, Ali Farag and Nour El Tayeb made history at their Nationals Championships (Photo credit: #BJOsquash)

Sources: PSA World Tour, Pharaoh Squash

March squash hotspots

--- There may not be any World Series events in March but it will nonetheless be a busy month for the squash top players. Action will be starting in London with the 15th Canary Wharf Classic, whose prize money has increased to $100,000 and which is consequently boasting a very strong line-up. There could well be a first Egyptian winner with the likes of the Shorbagy brothers, Ali Farag and Tarek Momen. But 2017 winner Nick Matthew and James Willstrop cannot be ruled out, having a great history in East Wintergarden. This tournament will be groundbreaking, with some of the earlier rounds being played in the best of 3 game format. A few days later, the draw will be even stronger in the Grasshopper Cup ($100,000) in Zurich, Switzerland. French General Grégory Gaultier could make his return after his abductor injury, in which case he would be up against five other top 10 players (Mohamed El Shorbagy, Gawad, Rösner, Abouelghar). The tour will be then moving to Asia at the end of the month for the Macau Open ($50,000, men and women), where the draws will be topped by Borja Golan and Camille Serme, respectively.

Nick Matthew and Mohamed El Shorbagy will be among the contenders in the Canary Wharf Classic, which starts on Monday (Photo credit: www.cwsquash.com)

--- There will be two major events outside of the PSA World Tour in March: the Asian Team Championships in KOrea, as well as the European Junior Championshipsip (Individual & Team) in Poland.

Main results

PSA

  • Suburban Collection Motor City Open 2018 (Detroit, United States) - $70,000 (Men's)
Winner: Marwan El Shorbagy (Egypt)
  • Cleveland Classic 2018 (Cleveland, United States) - $50,000 (Women's)

Winner: Joelle King (New Zealand)

  • UCS Swedish Open 2018 (Linköping, Sweden) - $70,000 (Men's)

Winner: Ali Farag (Egypt)

  • Canada Cup 2018 (Toronto, Canada) - $50,000 (Men's)

Winner: Max Lee (Hong Kong)

  • Windy City Open 2018 presented by The Mark Walter Group and EquiTrust Life Insurance Company (Chicago, United States) - $250,000 (Men's) + $250,000 (Women's)

Winners: Mohamed El Shorbagy (Egypt) and Nour El Tayeb (Egypt)

Others

  • British National Squash Championship (Manchester, England) - Men and women

Winners: Nick Matthew (England) and Tesni Evans (Wales)

  • Egyptian National Squash Championship (Cairo) - Men and women

Winners: Ali Farag and Nour El Tayeb

Schedule

PSA

  • 15th Canary Wharf Classic (London, England) - 3rd to 9th of March - $100,000 (Men's)
  • Grasshopper Cup (Zurich, Switzerland) - 12th to 18th of March - $100,000 (Men's)
  • Macau Open 2018 (Macau, China) - 27th of Match to 1st of April - $50,000 (Men's) + $50,000 (Women's)

Others

  • 19th Asian Team Championships (Cheongju, Korea) - 21st to 25th of March - Men and women
  • European U19 Individual & Team Championshipsip (Bielsko-Biala, Poland) - 24th of March to 1st of April - Men and women

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