Momen Stuns Elias To Reach El Gouna International Semi-Finals

Egypt’s Tarek Momen shocked World No.3 Diego Elias in a quick-fire three-game win despite a last-minute venue change to reach his first semi-final of the season.

The Egyptian has won 11 of their 15 encounters of the PSA Tour, but the Peruvian had defeated Momen in all three of their clashes since the beginning of 2023.

Due to adverse conditions on the glass court caused by the humidity, the final match of day five was moved to the traditional court at the El Gouna Squash Complex, where the first, second and half of the third round was played.

The Egyptian started strong, accruing an early 5-2 lead. The ‘Peruvian Puma’ fought back, but Momen kept ahead throughout to take the first game 11-6.

Mistakes plagued the World No.3’s play as he struck the tin on multiple occasions and Momen quickly grew a 7-1 lead. Elias struggled to contain Momen as he controlled the tempo of the game and cruised to an 11-4 win to go within a game of the semi-finals.

Elias continued to look off the pace, and the Egyptian took full advantage as he pushed on to a 11-5 third game win to knock out the World No.3.

“I’m over the moon, obviously, because I haven’t played this well in a long time,” said Momen after the match.

“I’ve been feeling really bad for a while as well, so it’s good to have days like this when I can see myself play like I used to. I started the season quite well. I thought I had a few very good performances. Qatar, US Open, even Paris. I thought I was on a trajectory going up and then something happened, I don’t know what but I just dropped a level and couldn’t find my consistency and I’ve been fighting really hard to get it back.

“But in the process, I was really struggling to get the desire to play again and I was fighting myself every day.

“This tournament, I felt ‘OK, I can see some flashes of good squash. It wasn’t that consistent but I could see it every day and today was just a day where I felt really good on court.

“It was the start, to be honest, I had to start very well and be focused and as soon as I had that momentum I could continue until the end of the match.

“And then there was a patch where I felt like I couldn’t miss. I don’t want to jinx it but I felt like I was going for shots. I didn’t think too much, I’ve ben thinking about my shots too much for a while and today I just couldn’t think. I was just playing, I was in the zone and that’s what made the difference.”

Momen’s coach, Omar Abdel Aziz, said after the match: “I’m surprised by the result, but not by the performance. I’ve seen that kind of performance week-on week-off in training. He is on fire. He is playing Ali [Farag], all the top guys in training, he is putting so much effort in.

“During Ramadan, he was doing an amazing diet, and you know how tough it is during Ramadan, his food intake was schedule by the minute.

“As he proved today, age is nothing on this Tour. Word number 8 beating WR3, 9 years difference between them, and Tarek still performs amazingly.”

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Result:
[8] Tarek Momen (EGY) bt [3] Diego Elias (PER) 3-0: 11-6, 11-4, 11-5 (28m)