Top Seed Farag Defeats Hesham In Five To Reach Black Ball Open Final 

World No.1 Ali Farag continued his quest for a first Black Ball Open title after overcoming the dangerous Mazen Hesham in five games. 

World No.6 Hesham started the match brightly, keeping the error count low and moving into a 7-1 lead with some well-balanced squash. Despite Farag working his way back to 10-5, the ‘Black Falcon’ took a one-game advantage. 

After Hesham had called for the physio at the end of the first, Farag continued his patient approach to the match in the second, stretching the rallies out and forcing Hesham deep in the court. The top seed’s high T position began to cause Hesham more and more problems, with Farag levelling the match by an 11-5 scoreline. 

The third took the same pattern as the previous game did, with errors starting to flow from Hesham’s racket on a regular basis. The No.4 seed, who hit a total of 30 errors throughout the contest, continued to struggle physically, trying to keep the rallies short and sharp and away from Farag’s metronomic rhythm. However, it was Farag who took an early lead and raced his way to a 2-1 lead in the match.

More physio treatment for Hesham between games seemed to do the trick in the fourth, with the 30-year-old racing into a 9-2 lead. Farag launched an impressive comeback to bring the scores back to 10-8, but Hesham held on to force a fifth.

The fifth was a one-sided game, with Farag moving into a 6-0 lead and never looking back. The top seed booked his spot in the title decider after 59 minutes of action, taking the deciding game 11-2.

After the match, Farag said: “Mazen was immaculate in the first, his length hitting was so good. Maybe I opened up the court a little bit and gave him the opportunities too much.

“I played a couple of good rallies [in the first] but not enough to put enough mileage into his legs. The second game, I started to hit a better length, and then when I started to go into the front corners I didn’t feel sharp enough.

“I just tried to put some miles into his legs and some errors from him then, and that was the plan for the second and third. In the fourth, I was stubborn, I wanted to prove that I could go in short and then all of a sudden I find myself 7-1 down.

“In the fifth, I had a good start and then Mazen maybe started to lose it a little bit. I was obviously very happy to get that last point there and move through to the final.”

Result:

[1] Ali Farag (EGY) bt [4] Mazen Hesham (EGY) 3-2: 5-11, 11-5, 11-2, 8-11, 11-2 (59m)