Season Review: Mohamed ElShorbagy

After a challenging 2021-22 season, this season’s campaign saw former World No.1 Mohamed ElShorbagy rediscover some of his best form under the tutelage of former rival Gregory Gaultier. While his main goal of reclaiming the World No.1 crown may have eluded him, ‘the Beast’ did capture five PSA titles, including the Platinum-level Qatar Classic as well as winning the European Team Championship with England.

We caught up with ElShorbagy to get his thoughts on the past year.

Initial thoughts on the season

MES: “This season has been a very long one and a great season. Winning five titles from six finals is a great result, of course. The main goal was to get to World No.1, which was something I haven’t achieved this season. 

“But as an athlete, you’re not going to achieve everything you want. It’s fine to achieve most of the things you want to achieve, so I’ve been blessed to be able to do that in my career.

“It’s a weird time in my career right now, as someone who has been so dominant in my career, dominating so many generations. I wasn’t just World No.1, I was a dominant World No.1. There’s a difference between those. 

“Someone who made 10 finals from 12 one year, someone who won six Platinums out of seven another. These are numbers you don’t see every day and now this season I went from someone who dominated different generations down to one of the best players in the world. A lot of players do try and achieve becoming one of the best players in the world, but that was not what I’ve always worked for. I’ve always worked to be dominant. 

“So it’s a bit of a time where you have to compete with players knowing that when you see my name, I’m one of the players that can win the tournament while before, when you saw my name in the draw, the percentage is very high for me to win.

“I’m always realistic and honest with myself. And I can just sit down today and say I’m not the same player anymore and all these things. I’m still trying to improve and get better. There are a lot of athletes who have achieved so much, like Novak Djokovic. Watching him at 36 and he’s still dominant and LeBron James winning NBA finals at 38 years old. When you see athletes like these, you get inspired.

“I’m going to be 33 next season, so one of the older players on tour. I’ve had some good moments and some bad moments. I’ve got some things I want to work on and see how I can get better for next season.

“The World No.1 [ranking] has always been on my mind. I’ve always liked being the No.1. As an individual athlete I’ve always believed that No.2,3,4 do not count. No number other than No.1 in any individual sport, or any sport really. That’s what I’m working for and what I’ll work for next season again.

“I would choose returning to World No.1 over anything. Even if I can get it for one more day. I loved being World No.1.

“Of course, I want to win the World Championship, the British Open, all the big titles, but when you target titles, you’re not going to be as consistent as if you target World No.1.”

On his relationship with Gregory Gaultier, ElShorbagy’s coach this season

MES: “Greg has had a huge impact. I was a fan watching him as a kid, then I became his rival, then he became my coach.

“We had an intense rivalry, me and Greg. We were not best friends. But once he retired, I told myself ‘someone like Greg, you’d rather have him on your team than against you.’ I’ve competed against him for so many years and he’s one of the toughest guys I’ve ever met in my life. I wanted to learn about and learn from him.

“I saw the way he’s disciplined. Even as a coach, he’s very disciplined, very hungry, always wanting to get better, just as he was as a player.

“I think we’re going to have a very interesting summer training this year. Last season was our first together and he would have seen me closely, how I play, how I react in different situations. This summer, we have to work on some of my weaknesses this season and that will be our first summer working together after he’s seen a whole season.

“I think there’s a lot of work to do, from both of us. I’m very lucky to have him in my team. I’ve had so many great coaches in my life, each one of them has had a great impact on me. I’m the kind of person who always believes that when you have someone in your corner, you don’t change your game but add stuff. I’m adding stuff all the time with [Gaultier], just as all the other great coaches in my life have added to my game.

“We’ve got hard work to do this summer and there’s a lot I want to achieve still in this sport.”

On his attacking style as he beat Diego Elias in Black Ball

MES: “This performance was maybe my best performance this season on the day. But as a top athlete, you have to perform like that through the season. I’d say that in the first part of the season I was way more consistent than in the second part, for sure. I need to work and find out why my first part was much more consistent. I won four events in the first half and only one event in the second.

“Was it a different Mohamed ElShorbagy in this match? I’d say that every season I am different. Every season I have to adapt to what happened the season before. I was much more attacking this year. Another year I had to be more defensive, and in another more physical, and in another more patient.

“That’s when players find weaknesses in your game and why you have to adapt and change your game. I definitely played differently this year, and next season I’ll be different again because I’m analysing this season and what went wrong. Like playing Asal in El Gouna, that was the first time I’d played a match like this and my first time with a performance like this against him, because I’ve been watching him and learning about him over the last few months.

“Believe me, next time it’s going to be even closer because you have to learn every time you play. I’m going to be 33 next season and I’m still learning every day. I’m still learning about these players and you can never stop learning. I’ve always felt that the best players in the world are the ones who listen the most, the ones with an honest assessment of themselves and can stay positive in the hardest moments of the year. 

“In that match against Diego, maybe I did attack more, but that’s what was required of me on that day. I go on court and do whatever is required to win the match. I don’t care what it is that’s required, I’m going to do it to get me there. That’s my job as an athlete, to win the last point of the match.

“My job is not to look good, it’s to win matches. The job of a builder is to build, my job is to win matches. I don’t do this as a hobby, it’s my life.

“I’m going to sit with Greg and my team and we’ll have a serious conversation about what is required from me next year.”

On what he wants to improve

MES: “The way I always think is ‘what do I need to do to beat the other players’ and then when I know that, train to beat them. Your opponents and rivals are the ones who improve you. You can’t just focus on yourself. A lot of athletes say ‘if I only focus on myself, I’m going to be in a good place mentally.’ For me, I’m going to be in a good place if I win events. That’s what puts me in a good place mentally. When I beat these guys, I’m happy.

“I’m not the kind of athlete who just focuses on themselves, I’m going to do whatever is required. If I need to get out of my comfort zone in every training session, then I’ll do it. It’s not my comfort zone to use lobs, I’d rather hit the ball hard and run and run and attack all the time, like when I was a kid. That [playing outside my usual game] is what was required to beat players like Nick [Matthew] and Greg [Gaultier]. It’s what I needed to do to win and succeed. 

“You asked me why I attacked so much against Diego. It’s not because I was focusing on myself, I did it because I lost to him before and I needed to adapt my game to do what was required to win that match.

“What do I need to do next season to get to World No.1? We’ll find that out when I talk to my team and see if I can achieve it. I believe I can achieve it, 100 percent.”

On his performances against Karim Abdel Gawad and Mostafa Asal in the semi finals of the World Championship and El Gouna International

MES: “[Despite them being good performances] I would rate it a failure – I didn’t win the event. I don’t care if I played well or not, I lost the event. My job is to win and if I don’t, I’ve failed at winning the event. My job is not to go and entertain the crowd, play a good event and lose and then have everyone tell me ‘you did well, you played great’. I don’t care about this. I didn’t win so I failed at the event.

“I have to be honest with myself and that’s the truth. The match with Gawad was an amazing match, high quality and we both went at each other. The same with Asal. But I lost both of them. I would never rate these tournaments as anything except ‘I failed to win them.’ There’s no other assessment really.”

On his comments to SquashSite after his match against Asal in El Gouna

MES: “That match against Asal in El Gouna, and my match against Diego in Black Ball, were my favourite  two matches to be a part of this year.

“Honestly, that Asal match was one of the matches I’ve enjoyed most in my career, that I’ve been a part of. I absolutely loved that match, it had everything. It was two warriors going at each other and we absolutely killed each other.

“This match, when I finished, the way I felt after the match was the same I used to feel with after playing Ramy [Ashour] or Greg [Gaultier]. Two warriors going at each other, killing each other, no excuses. When the match is done, the better player has won.

“At the top level, it’s going to get messy on court. You’ve got to accept it. The worst part of the match, movement-wise, was when he was 2-0 up and 10-10 in the third. The way I was thinking about it was, it’s 12:30 AM, he has a chance to win 3-0 and get ready for the final tomorrow. He knows, if I get this game, I’m going to get back into this match. With my experience, I could see his physical drop and I’d have the advantage in the fourth. And he knows this, he’s a very clever player. And he was trying to do anything to win the match, that’s when emotions get in the way and you can make mistakes.

“In terms of how he plays now, he’s definitely better. But the way I see it is that it’s not about him. Even if he didn’t get better, I have a warrior mentality, and I have to find a way to beat him. I don’t care about what he does on court. Whether you have to move around him or stand up to him, and I stood up to him.

“Every time I fell on the floor, I didn’t make drama out of it or moan to the referee, I stood up and talked to him and said let’s fight each other. Because when we’d played in the past, it was always very soft and a very low quality match.

“In Qatar, when I beat him, he didn’t play well at all, because of the respect he gave me. Then in the final of Houston he beat me 3-0, again because of the respect he gave me I was too soft.

“In El Gouna, midway in the third game, I told him I don’t care about the respect you give me anymore. Come and fight me. Go hard at me like you do with everyone, and I’m going to go hard at you.

“You want two top athletes fighting each other. And I’ve spoken to so many people who absolutely loved watching that match, so many. And I’m not just talking about fans, I’m talking about people who really understand the sport, national coaches, big names in the sport, even other players. They absolutely loved watching this match. The players who complain are the players who cannot beat him. Have you ever seen Ali [Farag] complaining? Never.

“The way Ali dealt with it was to go back with his team and think how to beat him. It’s the same way I’m doing, I’m going to ask ‘how can I beat this guy?’.

“Instead of crying to the referee or crying on social media, instead of crying to whoever, just find a way to beat the guy. That’s it. That’s the best answer and I’ve always been taught that the best way to answer anyone is to beat them. That’ it, and once it’s over, shake hands and it’s done.

“If you watch the match, as much as we fought each other, there was so much respect at the same time. Like how he gave me his socks during the match. There were some nice moments that people could see. Fighting each other, but also respect.

“It’s my way of playing the sport. I’m not saying there weren’t moments that could have been better. Of course there were moments that could have been dealt [with] better, but you can’t expect human beings to be perfect 100 percent of the time.

“So honestly, that match and my match in Black Ball, they were my favourite two matches to be part of this season, for sure.

“I cannot wait to be on court with him again. I cannot wait to be part of a match like this again. It was a huge match and I always tell myself, if Greg, Nick, Ramy, Shabana, all these greats of the game. If they had to face him, do you think any of them would have cried on social media? Do you think any of them would have complained the way they do? Why does an athlete have to go on social media and complain? Do you really need to get the approval of the people? I don’t care about that. I care about holding the trophy more than I care about the approval.

“You don’t need to talk on social media and give interviews, all of this. Do I agree with everything Asal does on court? No, I don’t. Does everyone agree with what I do on court? No, not everyone does. I don’t agree about stuff other athletes do, too. But once you go on court it’s you against your opponent. Man up and deal with it, that’s the way I see it.”

On long-time rival Ali Farag

MES: “At the end of the day, Ali is a big champ. He’s one of the best who’s ever played the sport. He’s the only one of the current generation that you can say that about.

“If anyone else got that injury he had, I would have had doubts about whether they can come back. But not Ali. I know the guys so well, I know what he does and how tough he is, how mentally tough he is.

“What he did this year is unbelievable. What he did this year is quite inspiring actually. It’s inspired me so much. The other guys shouldn’t feel bad about what happened, with Ali coming back and winning most of the big titles at the end of the season, because they should be inspired by that.

“I’ve been inspired by all of my rivals, they’re the reason I’m here today. 

“What Ali did was unbelievable and has inspired me to do even better next year. We haven’t played much this season unfortunately, but I do hope to go on court with him many more times. Because whenever we play each other, it’s always a different vibe, because of the rivalry over the last 5-6 years. We’ve played so many finals, so many big matches, and it’s always [needed] very different preparation than for any player I’ve played currently.”

His favourite moment of the season

MES: “Actually, one of my favourite moments of the season was winning the European Team Championships with England. Because I’ve not played in many team events in my life, and my last time playing a team event was about 12 years ago. So I didn’t have much understanding of how the team works, how the team vibe works. It’s very different and I had to learn about how to get better in a team event. I had to ask a lot of questions. I was asking David Campion a lot of questions and Jade, our physiotherapist, a lot about what I need to do with they guys.

“Because when you play as No.1 as well, you’re not just a squash player who’s required to win matches, you need to help your teammates in a different way. Men and women really. And obviously because I’m new to the team, I had to have a very different mindset to how I approach things and get a little out of my comfort zone as well. Because when you play individual events, it’s all about you, so when we won, I think there’s a video of me from when [Adrian] Waller won that last point and I just jumped out of my seat and did a 360! I was so happy and so excited and it was one of the best weeks I’ve had this season and one of the best weeks that I’m going to always remember, definitely. 

“It was a great moment to be a part of, definitely.