Analysis: How the El Gouna International Was Won

The penultimate Platinum event of the 2023/24 PSA season concluded last week in Egypt as the champions of the 12th El Gouna International Squash Open were crowned.

World No.2 and defending champion Nouran Gohar brought her A game to El Gouna once again as she successfully defended her 2023 title in emphatic fashion. Runaway men’s World No.1 Ali Farag also managed to successfully defend his title from last year to mark his 40th title on the PSA tour and seventh of the season.

We’ve taken a closer look at the routes of the two winners and how they navigated through each round of the tournament.

Round one:

The opening round saw both of the champions receive byes straight into round two, whilst 64 other players battled for places in the second round. The matches of the day came back-to-back on court 2 as British duo Curtis Malik and Tesni Murphy secured five-set wins to advance. There was also a big win from Portugal’s Rui Soares, who downed home player Yahya Elnawasany 13-11 in the fifth.

Round two:

The second round saw the top seeds enter the fray with places in the last 16 up for grabs. Both the eventual winners featured on court two in the round with Farag first to book his place in the third round. The World No.1 faced England’s Curtis Malik, fresh off a strong win over in-form Bernat Jaume. Farag was slow to start in the opening game and was under pressure from Malik, who was hitting his targets well. The No.1 seed starting to weave his webs however and settled into his groove to win in straight games.

A tricky encounter faced Gohar in her opening match of the competition as she was drawn against London Squash Classic champion Sivasangari Subramaniam. Despite never losing to the Malaysian, Gohar knew the form that Subramaniam was in and would be rightly fearful. This seemed to only make Gohar play better and concentrate more however as she stormed to victory, winning 11-6, 11-8, 11-4 in under half an hour. A big statement from ‘The Terminator’.

Round three:

Both winners then took to the all-glass court in the third round, looking to secure quarter final places in another Platinum event. Farag took on the ‘Swiss Rocket’ on the first day of round three and didn’t have things all his own way against the former World No.13. Mueller is known for his laid back style and shot making abilities. These were on full show under the lights in El Gouna as he took advantage of a slow start from Farag to lead 1-0.

The World No.1 started to put serious work into the legs of the Swiss from the second game onwards however and utilised his sickening forehand boast to drag Mueller up the court then hunt the return, if there was one. Farag dominated the final three games, winning 11-5, 11-4, 11-5 to book his spot in the last eight.

The following night, it was No.2 seed Gohar’s turn to play in front of the El Gouna crowd as she took on teenage sensation Amina Orfi for the very first time. Gohar would have taken note of Orfi’s rise and prepared herself for when they would inevitably meet, and after a positive start from the defending champion, it looked as though her homework had paid off.

The tenacity of Orfi is one of her main assets and back she came in the third game, making life very uncomfortable for her higher ranked compatriot and forcing errors out of the World No.2. Despite losing the third game, Gohar responded in true champion style as she narrowed down the angles of Orfi and started to rattle off winners. 11-5 in the fourth game and Gohar was back in the quarters.

Quarter Finals:

Farag again featured first in the quarter finals as he squared off with former World No.1 and former World Champion Mohamed Elshorbagy for the 29th time. The head-to-head record stood at 14-14 heading into the heavyweight clash, but Elshorbagy would need to score only a second win in eight matches against Farag to advance to the semis.

The Englishman looked like a man possessed in the opening exchanges of the first game as he was trying to volley every length that Farag attempted. The top seed caught onto this tactic and subsequently started to use more height and short balls to regain the middle of the court. This worked a treat as Farag was the one to earn the first game ball at 10-9 and converted at the first time of asking, squeezing Elshorbagy on the side wall. The World Champion was in the drivers seat from there and had the better of his rival in all areas of the court to win games two and three both 11-6 and score only his third straight games win over Elshorbagy.

In a repeat of the recent Black Ball Open final, Nouran Gohar faced training partner Olivia Weaver for the fifth time this season as she looked to continue her title defence. Gohar had only dropped two games to Weaver in their ten previous meetings and the American was not about to add another.

Gohar dominated the opening game and was far too accurate for Weaver, who struggled to find any inroads into Gohar’s game. The next two games were very competitive with the World No.2 needing to work hard to fend off the aggressive and measured attacks of the USA No.1. Despite the better showing from Weaver, Gohar showed her top-level experience to close the games out 12-10, 13-11 to move into the final four.

Semi-Finals:

Former World Champion Tarek Momen scored a huge win over Peru’s World No.4 Diego Elias in the quarter finals to set up an all-Egyptian semi-final with top seed Ali Farag. The match against Elias and efforts throughout the tournament seemed to take their toll on Momen who wasn’t able to reach the performance levels that he has shown many times. Farag was in complete control of the contest which has been tricky for him in the past. The World No.1 constantly kept the ball moving away from the racket of Momen and once a loose ball came, he clinically dispatched it.

After establishing a 2-0 lead, Farag went up another gear to hammer the final nail in the coffin of Momen, winning 11-4 in the third to continue his run of reaching the final of every event that he’s played in this season.

Gohar then faced No.4 seed Georgina Kennedy for a spot in the final, a match-up that is incredibly one sided with Gohar winning all five previous meetings to nil. The same took place in El Gouna as ‘the Terminator’ lived up to her nickname and showed her clinical nature as she ended the run of Kennedy. Gohar was sharp onto all of Kennedy’s boast attacks and returned them with interest. The World No.2’s general play was constantly at a higher level than her opponent which made for a tough night for the Commonwealth Games gold medalist. 3-0 in just over half an hour for Gohar.

A final with Nour ElSherbini coming up…

Finals:

Nouran Gohar and Nour ElSherbini were meeting in an 18th final in this years El Gouna International, with Gohar only having won three of those, the favourite had to be top seed ElSherbini. Gohar started the better of the two, racing out to an 8-3 lead in the opening game, playing fast, accurate squash. Gohar converted the game 11-6 to draw first blood in the final.

ElSherbini responded in typical style by winning the second game 13-11 and looked to push on as she has so many times before. Gohar wouldn’t allow this however and she regrouped impressively to come out of the blocks fast and aggressively to lead 7-3 in the third. Gohar pulled away again to deal the game and move to within one game of the title. More of the same came from ‘the Terminator’ as she could see that she was the one moving the better of the two, which must have given her confidence. Plenty of entertaining rallies took place but Gohar wouldn’t be denied. Another 11-6 win for Gohar sealed the 3-1 win and ensured back-to-back titles on the PSA World Tour.

Another all-Egyptian battle faced Farag in the men’s final as he took on Mostafa Asal in a second consecutive World Tour final. Asal became only the second player to get the better of Farag all season with the win in the Black Ball Open final.

The two were point for point throughout the whole first game with Farag using his subtleness to pull ahead to 10-7 and convert the all important first game 11-7. Asal remained calm and continued to try and work the opportunity to attack before unleashing his heavy hitting blows. Asal moved to 10-8 with two chances to equalise and after Farag received a No Let, the final was level.

Errors started to creep into the game of Asal and in no time at all, Farag was back in front, winning 11-4 with a visible drop in physicality coming from ‘The Raging Bull’. More of the same followed in game four as Farag continued his high intensity squash which looked to be too much for the 22-year-old Egyptian. The top seed claimed the fourth 11-5 to successfully defend his El Gouna title.

All matches from the El Gouna International Squash Open 2024 are available to watch on demand in the SQUASHTV Replay section.

PSA World Tour action remains in Egypt for the next event as the CIB PSA World Championships commence on the 8th May from Cairo. All action will be streamed live on SQUASHTV.