Xbox PSA World Tour Finals – Semi-Finals: The Stats & How To Watch Live

It’s semi-finals day of the season-ending Xbox PSA World Tour Finals, with four blockbuster matches to come from Bellevue, Seattle.

Play gets underway at 18:00 (GMT-7) from The Boys and Girls Club Hidden Valley Field House, with every second of action available to watch live on SQUASHTV.

You can stay up-to-date with news from the tournament by following the PSA World Tour on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok or by visiting the official tournament website.

Order of Play

Nouran Gohar v Nele Gilis

The first match of semi-finals day will see current World Champion Nouran Gohar take on Belgium’s Nele Gilis for a spot in the title decider.

After a comprehensive opening day defeat to World No.1 Nour El Sherbini, No.6 seed Gilis has bounced back in impressive style, claiming victories over younger sister Tinne Gilis as well as US No.1 Olivia Weaver. In the process, Gilis became the first Belgian player to reach the semi final stage of the PSA World Tour Finals.

However, if she is to go one better, the World No.5 will have to produce a monumental display to stop Gohar in her tracks. ‘The Terminator’ has been in frightening form in recent months, winning four straight titles on the PSA World Tour, and also topping her respective group in Bellevue with wins over Hania El Hammamy, Georgina Kennedy, and Nour El Tayeb.

Gohar holds a perfect head-to-head record against Gilis throughout their careers to date, having won all ten of their meetings on the PSA Tour, and the Egyptian will be the heavy favourite to stretch that winning streak to 11 today.

Mostafa Asal v Tarek Momen

World No.8 Tarek Momen has proven to be the surprise package of this year’s Xbox PSA World Tour Finals, with ‘The Viper’ producing two superb displays to defeat current World Champion Diego Elias as well as World No.3 Paul Coll in the group stages. These two wins, as well as a 2-1 defeat to Mazen Hesham, were enough to see the Egyptian qualify top of his respective group and continue his quest for a maiden World Tour Finals title.

However, Momen will be up against it in his semi-final against Mostafa Asal, with ‘The Raging Bull’ having made this event his own in recent years. Asal, already a three-time champion at the World Tour Finals, defeated Mohamed ElShorbagy and Karim Abdel Gawad on his way to the last four, and will be full of confidence after recently capturing his first British Open title in Birmingham.

Asal leads the head-to-head stats with seven wins to Momen’s three, but apart from a 16-minute injury-curtailed clash at the Hong Kong Open, the two Egyptians haven’t met in a best-of-five match since the Qatar Classic in October 2021. On that occasion, it was Asal who clinched victory in a five-game, 114-minute thriller.

Although Asal will be the favourite in this semi-final, and deservedly so considering his recent rich vein of form, Momen has proven he has the weapons to defeat anybody in the world this week, and will be up to the challenge of claiming another seeding scalp.

Nour El Sherbini v Hania El Hammamy

World No.1 meets World No.3 in the second women’s semi-final of the day, with Nour El Sherbini and Hania El Hammamy both looking to book their spots in the title decider.

Top seed El Sherbini as looked in top form this week in Bellevue, having won all three of her matches against Olivia Weaver and the Gilis sisters, and subsequently finished top of her group with 11 points. ‘The Warrior Princess’, a six-time winner on the PSA World Tour this season, will be determined to finish the campaign on a high after three consecutive defeats to Nouran Gohar in the finals of the El Gouna International, the PSA World Championships, and the British Open.

The 28-year-old has won four of her five meetings with El Hammamy this season, and more generally, 12 of their 19 meetings during their careers to date.

El Hammamy’s route to the semi-finals was a little less straightforward than El Sherbini’s, with the 23-year-old having to overcome an early deficit to defeat Nour El Tayeb in her opening match, before having to bounce back from defeat to Gohar with a winner-takes-all victory over Georgina Kennedy yesterday.

The younger Egyptian is likely to have taken renewed confidence from this win over Kennedy, but will require yet another step up in performance if she is to defeat the El Sherbini and progress to her seventh final of the season.

Ali Farag v Paul Coll

World No.1 Ali Farag and World No.3 Paul Coll will square off for the sixth time in the 2023/24 season in what looks a mouth-watering end to the day’s play in Seattle.

If the pair’s previous matches this campaign are anything to go by, we will be in for a treat, with four of their five meetings having gone all the way to a deciding game, and three of these matches lasting over 90 minutes in duration.

Coll edges the head-to-head record this season, with three wins to his name, but top seed Farag has taken the honours in 20 of their 29 meetings on the PSA Tour. The Egyptian has also looked in impeccable form during this year’s Xbox PSA World Tour Finals, having come through a tough group that included Mostafa Asal, Mohamed ElShorbagy and Karim Abdel Gawad without dropping a game.

Meanwhile, Coll will be looking to pick himself back up from a defeat to Tarek Momen in his final match of the pool stages – a result that subsequently saw him finish second in his group. Prior to this, the New Zealand No.1 had recorded strong wins over Peru’s Diego Elias and Egypt’s Mazen Hesham.

Expect fireworks from this one.