World Tour Finals: El Hammamy Reaches Title Decider for Third Time

World No.3 Hania El Hammamy has reached the CIB PSA World Tour Finals title decider for the third time in her career after an accomplished 11-3, 11-8 victory over fellow Egyptian Nour El Tayeb at Cairo’s EDNC SODIC.

It was a repeat of the 2019-20 World Tour Finals title decider, with El Hammamy coming back from two games down to claim victory in that match.

El Hammamy, who was also a beaten finalist at the 2020-21 edition, made a slow start to proceedings with a couple of unforced errors early on but she soon grew into the match and dominated the rest of the opening game.

El Tayeb, the runner-up in Group B of the women’s event, has been managing a hamstring issue on her right leg throughout the tournament and she struggled to match her opponent on the backhand side in particular, with El Hammamy finding a number of winners there as she mixed up her angles to great effect.

The second game started with El Hammamy running away to a 4-1 lead as she continued to move El Tayeb around the court with the aim of putting work into her right leg. El Tayeb, one of the gutsiest players on the PSA Tour continued to battle away, later saving two match balls.

But El Hammamy wasn’t to be denied, eventually finishing her opponent off with a forehand kill to reach her 21st PSA final and her fifth of the season.

“Nour has been playing this week with an injury that she’s been carrying for some time,” said El Hammamy.

“I admire her and she inspires me in so many ways, from giving birth to coming back and reaching the top, facing all the injuries she’s been facing and finding courage and motivation to come on court and play this way. I have huge respect for her.

“It’s definitely tricky to play against someone who is carrying an injury, she played wiser than she would usually because she needs to use her brain more to reduce the physicality she would need on court. I’m glad I managed to win.”

El Hammamy will play either World No.1 Nouran Gohar or World Champion Nour El Sherbini in the best of five games final and she is full of praise for both of her compatriots.

“They have proved themselves at the top of the game, they’re No.1 and No.2 and Nour El Sherbini is a seven-time World Champion,” El Hammamy said.

“I’ve played against Gohar so many times this season and I haven’t played against Sherbini that much in the second half of the season. I’m really looking forward to watching them play and hopefully I will be ready for tomorrow.

“With the duration of matches I’ve been playing throughout the season, I’m more than ready for a best of five match. I’ve trained enough and have had enough physical match to get me ready for tomorrow’s play. The best of three made me fresher than normal, so I think I should be fine tomorrow.”

Result

[3] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) bt [6] Nour El Tayeb (EGY) 2-0: 11-3, 11-8 (21m)