Year In Review: A Look Back At 2022 – PT2

Part two of our look back at the major points in the year just gone – check out part one here.

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September

The first Platinum event of the new 2022/23 PSA season look place in Qatar as 48 men looked to start the season on a high and clinch the title. It was a tournament full of shocks and surprises, including the absence of both the top two seeds in the quarter finals as Ali Farag lost out to Colombia’s Miguel Rodriguez, whilst Paul Coll was beaten by home favourite Abdulla Al Tamimi to delight the Qatar crowd.

Mohamed ElShorbagy was the first to reach the final after beating Mostafa Asal in four games, with Asal unable to produce his best performance. A debut Platinum final awaited Frenchman Victor Crouin as he defeated former World Champion Tarek Momen to give himself a shot at the title. ElShorbagy was dominant for large parts of the final and lead 2-0 but Crouin started to mount his comeback. He drew a game back but the nouse of ElShorbagy was too good and he closed the match out 3-1.

Just three days after the final of the Qatar Classic, Crouin was back in action at the return of the Open De France taking place on a spectacular stage in Nantes. The 23-year-old showed no signs of fatigue as he carved his way through the draw to set up a final with Marwan ElShorbagy. Crouin found himself 2-1 down in the final but, spurred on by the home crowd, he found his way back in the match, and managed to close out the fifth game 12-10 to claim the biggest title of his career.

The women’s final was a special occasion as the Gilis sisters, Tinne and Nele, went head to head for the Bronze event title. Nele was under the cosh in the opening game as the rallies were long and tiresome, with Tinne using a range of shots to move her sister around. Nele stayed strong as she so often does and after securing the first game 11-9, took the next two comfortably to win the title.

The first joint Platinum event of the season was next up on the calendar as the players headed to Egypt for the CIB Egyptian Open 2022. All top four seeds progressed to the semi-finals in both the men’s and women’s events, with the main male threat to that, Mohamed ElShorbagy, losing out in round three. Farag avenged his previous losses to Mostafa Asal with a 3-1 win, whilst Coll defeated Diego Elias in five games. In the women’s event, Nouran Gohar was pushed all the way to five games by USA’s Amanda Sobhy but came out on top and Hania El Hammamy scored another victory over World Champion Nour El Sherbini.

The good form in finals continued for Hania El Hammamy as she yet again defeated World No.1 Nouran Gohar to claim her fourth Platinum event title and score a third final win over the ‘Terminator’. After Gohar took the second game 13-11 to level at 1-1, El Hammamy went from strength to strength to capture the next three games. Farag and Coll played out a calculated men’s final in which Farag overturned the British Open defeat to claim the second men’s platinum title of the season.

October

The tour then headed to the USA for a double header as the Oracle Netsuite Open preceded the prestigious U.S Open.

The Oracle Netsuite Open featured a new venue, with Pier 70 hosting the PSA World Tour Silver tournament. The winners, however, were familiar, with Mohamed ElShorbagy and Amanda Sobhy collecting their third Oracle Netsuite titles.

The men’s final was a special occasion as Mohamed took on younger brother Marwan. The siblings had previously played 19 times on the PSA World Tour, with Mohamed holding a 14-5 lead over his younger brother, the most notable win coming in the 2017 PSA World Championships final in Manchester.

Marwan showed his class to take the opening game, but Mohamed came back with a vengeance to earn the win. Sobhy, meanwhile, took on surprise finalist Farida Mohamed to defend her title in front of a packed house and, like Mohamed, came back from a game down to lift the trophy in front of her home crowd.

At the U.S. Open, there was controversy as early as the second round, when Asal was disqualified for injuring Frenchman Lucas Serme after accidentally striking him with the ball, leaving Serme requiring treatment at a hospital for a perforated ear drum.

That left the men’s draw wide open, with Farag and Elias ultimately meeting in the final. An injury sustained by Farag in his semi-final clash with Marwan ElShorbagy brought about a quick end to the final though, with the Egyptian shaking hands to hand Elias his first major honour of the new season.

In the women’s event, Sabrina Sobhy’s third round win over El Hammamy sent shockwaves through the draw, but it was to be a familiar final line-up, with Gohar and El Sherbini locking horns in the final. The former won it to win her third successive U.S. Open title.

A trip to the Grasshopper Cup saw El Sherbini and Asal bounce back to take silverware, before the SQUASHTV cameras rocked up in New Zealand for the first time ever, first for the Nations Cup and then for the New Zealand Open – both of which were held in Tauranga.

November

The Nations Cup was the first instalment in the new SquashFORWARD series, with a group stage format featuring four teams in each group, before the winners of each group progressed to play each other in the final. The Nations Cup notably used a new scoring format, with a first to seven points, best of seven games format being used, as well as Powerplays, which gave players the opportunity to win two points instead of one whenever they used it.

Mohamed ElShorbagy – lining up in England colours for the first time since his switch of allegiance in the summer – inspired his country to a win over hosts New Zealand in the final. Despite Sarah-Jane Perry’s defeat at the hands of Joelle King, ElShorbagy put in a masterclass to dismantle Coll in front of his home fans, eventually winning the tie – and the tournament – for England by a solitary point on count back.

ElShorbagy and King’s brilliance would continue into the New Zealand Open Silver-level event too, with ElShorbagy beating Coll once again, before King overcame Wales’ Tesni Evans.

The pair weren’t done there either as they moved onto the Singapore Open, which was broadcast on SQUASHTV for the first time. ElShorbagy earned his fourth PSA title of the season after getting the better of Elias, while King defeated Nour El Tayeb to make it back-to-back titles.

Wins for Nele Gilis and Mazen Hesham at the Malaysian Open then followed, before 2022 ended with a bang at the Hong Kong Open.

December

With Farag missing due to injury, Coll had the opportunity to reclaim the World No.1 spot if he won the event, but his wings were clipped by Mostafa Asal in the semi-finals, setting up a final encounter with Diego Elias, who had finally ended the Mohamed ElShorbagy juggernaut.

It looked for all the world like it would be the Peruvian’s day after he stormed to a 2-0 lead against a seemingly disinterested Asal. The Egyptian overturned a championship ball in the third game though, eventually edging it 12-10, and that proved to be a turning point as Asal came back to seal the win, resulting in typically exuberant post-match celebrations. That victory has also helped Asal rise to World No.2 and he could well end January on top of the pile.

The men’s final followed a simply sensational match between El Hammamy and El Sherbini. El Hammamy had beaten Gohar in the previous round – marking the first time in 12 events during 2022 that Gohar has failed to reach the final – and the 22-year-old arguably raised her game even further to come out on top of a mammoth 89-minute epic against El Sherbini.

The win marks El Hammamy’s fourth Platinum event win of 2022 and, like Asal, few would bet against the Egyptian having a real crack at the World No.1 spot in the opening months of 2023.