Farag & El Sherbini Retain PSA World Tour Player Of The Month Awards For May

After the successful defence of his PSA World Championships title plus a Manchester Open win, Ali Farag and reigning World Champion Nour El Sherbini have retained their PSA World Tour Player of the Month status this month.

Farag has been desperate to reclaim lost ground after a spell on the sidelines in the middle of the season due to a knee injury. After his British Open success in April, he turned his attention to the PSA World Championships in Chicago. Farag looked strong and determined throughout and defeated Paul Coll and Mostafa Asal in the quarters and semi-finals, before needing just three games to beat compatriot Karim Abdel Gawad in the final to lift a fourth World Championship title.

Farag had little time to recover however as he quickly moved onto the Manchester Open Silver-level event in a bid to gather points that he’d lost out on due to his injury. It wasn’t all plain sailing for the World Champion however, as he was pushed hard by European trio Iker Pajares, Patrick Rooney and Joel Makin, beating them all in tough four-game battles. He then faced Karim Abdel Gawad in back-to-back finals, this time beating Gawad in four games to lift a first Manchester Open, alongside his wife Nour El Tayeb.

El Sherbini played just one tournament in May and what an event it was for the ‘Warrior Princess’. She claimed a seventh Worlds title in Chicago, taking her just one win away from matching the record of eight titles held by the legendary Nicol David.

El Sherbini is a master at navigating her way through World Championships draws and did so again in the USA as she moved through to the semi-finals without dropping a single game. She then overcame Joelle King in four games to set up a familiar final with Nouran Gohar, replaced El Sherbini as the World No.1 earlier today. The defending champion was in complete control throughout the contest and closed out the third game 12-10 to successfully defend the biggest title of the season.

Replays from both the PSA World Championships and Manchester Open can be found on SQUASHTV.

Due to the El Gouna International finishing in June, those results will be included in the consideration for next month’s Players of the Month awards.