Gawad and Aitken Named PSA Players of the Month for December

Egypt’s World No.5 Karim Abdel Gawad and Scotland’s World No.54 Lisa Aitken have been named the men’s and women’s PSA Players of the Month, respectively, for December.

Former World No.1 Gawad began December with victory at the Golootlo Pakistan Open Squash Championships, where he defeated Peru’s World No.11 Diego Elias in straight-games in the final.

The following week, the Egyptian then enjoyed a formidable performance in Cairo to be crowned the CIB Black Ball Squash Open champion and secure his first PSA Platinum title since his 2017 J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions victory.

Gawad defeated the likes of World No.1 Mohamed ElShorbagy and World No.4 Tarek Momen en route to the final, before then overcoming compatriot and World No.2 Ali Farag in the final to deny Farag the chance to top the men’s World Rankings.

The strong run of form saw Gawad return to the top end of the rankings in January as he now stands at World No.5 in the New Year.

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Meanwhile, Scotland’s Aitken enjoyed her own purple patch of form in December as she scored two back-to-back titles at the Internazionali D’Italia and Remeo Ladies Open.

The World No.54 defeated Switzerland’s Cindy Merlo in the final in Riccione, Italy by an 11-3, 12-14, 11-5, 13-11 scoreline in 38 minutes to claim her fourth PSA title.

A week later, the Scottish woman backed it up with victory at the Remeo Ladies Open where she defeated United States World No.57 Olivia Fiechter in straight-games in Helsinki, Finland and end 2018 on a high note.