Farag Has His Revenge In El Gouna International Final Win V Asal

World No.1 Ali Farag avenged his Black Ball defeat to Mostafa Asal with an entertaining 3-1victory over the World No.4 in the final of the El Gouna International Squash Open final.

Farag had the former World No.1 on the back foot in the first game, with Asal struggling with his court positioning as he tried read the defending champion.

After going down 11-7 in game one, Asal hit back in game two. The 22-year-old hit a number of high-quality winners, deceiving Farag on several occasions with subtle touches as he pulled away from 7-7 to draw level with an 11-8 win.

This time, it was Farag’s time to hit back, with the World No.1 dominant as he reclaimed the advantage by taking game three 11-4 in just eight minutes.

Both players went on the attack in game four, with neither man able to build a lead early on.

At 5-5, both men looked capable of moving on, before Farag suddenly found a way to break the deadlock.

The reigning World Champion put together a spectacular scoring run, with confidence flowing as he hit six unanswered points to secure the title.

“First and foremost, for Mostafa, for the player he’s become, for the man he becomes, it’s an honour and a joy to share a court with him.

“It was pretty much free-flowing all the way. [It was] played in a very hard manner, but a good manner.

“I think that’s the way the crowd deserves to watch the squash, our beautiful sport.

“I lost to Mostafa, I was second best on the day, last week. He was better in almost every department, and I had to go back and work on different stuff. Try to take the middle court away from him, especially on the back hand side.

“I had to change the paces, the angles and I did that well for the entire game, but at some points I was still outplayed because of how great of a player he is, so I’m very happy I stayed strong for the whole match to come through with a win today.

“The Egyptian crowd, I mean, you don’t see that often around the world.”

Result: [1] Ali Farag (EGY) bt [4] Mostafa Asal (EGY) 3-1: 11-7, 8-11, 11-4, 11-5 (58m)

For Asal and Farag, attention turns to the 2023-2024 CIB PSA World Championships, which are taking place in Cairo 9-18 May, where Farag will look to defend his title.

Earlier in the evening, Nouran Gohar beat World No.1 Nour El Sherbini to win her first major title of the season.

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