Season Review: Nouran Gohar

Egypt’s Nouran Gohar enjoyed another terrific season on the PSA World Tour in 2022/23, racking up five titles and reaching the final in all but one of her events. Consistent is the word to describe ‘The Terminator’. We caught up with the World No.1 to discuss her season and more:

NG – “I’m happy with my season. Obviously, there were a lot of positives. It could have been better with winning the big titles like the British Open and the Word Championships but if we assess the season as a whole, it was a very successful one.

“The good thing about it is I can still learn from things I did in the season and I’m actually looking forward to improving more from the form I had this season and hopefully it’s going to be better next season as well.”

Made 21 of the 24 finals available to you since the start of the 2021/22 season.

NG –“I didn’t realise that to be honest. I just go into a tournament and then the next one and then the next one. So it’s like a roller coaster of matches.

“When you’re playing well, it’s easier in a way because you feel like you have momentum and you’re in a flow and you go through the tournaments and go through the motions. Obviously losing some finals, doesn’t make it very easy for you, but you know how to go through the tournaments and you have the experience to go into big tournaments, knowing that you’re able to play five matches in a row and regroup and then come back for another tournament.

“It was quite a good statistics to know that made 21 finals from just 24 events in three years. It’s not easy, you can have one consistent year but three is a good thing and I think in one of my previous interviews actually before the 2021/2022 season, you guys asked me about what’s the key thing that changed. I mentioned consistency. So I think that’s showed for the past few years.”

On adding variety into her game

NG – “Working with Rod [Martin] has been a huge asset for me in terms of my career, in terms of even my way of thinking about the game. I think that was the main change. It made me think about the game differently and having someone was the calibre of Rodney Martin in my corner gave me a big boost of confidence. He knows exactly how you would feel before going into a major event or before going into a tournament or not feeling like you’re playing well or, on the other side, you can be playing really well and then you go into a tournament and you’re not feeling comfortable. So having him definitely changed the way I perceive the game.

“We always try to work on other stuff to improve my weaknesses, but most importantly as well to keep on working on my strengths. Because people sometimes just keep on focusing on the weaknesses and they forget about their strengths and that’s not the point of improving and I think it’s like a trial and error process. Sometimes things work, sometimes it doesn’t work and we go back, reflect and try to find another solution. I think about the game of squash as a puzzle or like a tennis game, you go in there during the season to prove something to the other players, then they start to study you to get things to counter whatever you’re doing and then you have to go back and find another solution and it’s actually very mental. I would say it’s not only about the physical or the technical part. It’s also tactical, very, tactical, and at this stage of being World No.1 and at the top level, the small details make a huge difference.”

On her British Open and World Championships 

NG – “To be honest, it was very tricky to have the biggest events back to back. Especially as you’re saying, I’ve been the most consistent player during the whole season and some other players may take advantage of that because they didn’t really do it all at the beginning of the season and then they starting peaking during these last few tournaments. It’s also tricky because it’s towards the end of the season as well. So the timing wasn’t easy, especially the British Open because we had it during Ramadan. So it was so hard to adapt the training sessions and still be fasting but you always learn and you try to do things in a better way for the next time. The British Open for me was a very, very good tournament until the final. All credit to Nour [El Sherbini] for winning the final but World Championships was a completely different story. 

“I had a hard draw. I had Tinne [Gilis] in the Last 16 and then [Nour] El Tayeb in the quarters and then Hania [El Hammamy] in the semis. I think that’s one of the hardest draws you can get in the World Champs but I was actually looking forward to the challenge and I was thinking that if I want to win this World Champs then I have to beat every single player.

“This season, a good thing happened. I won El Gouna, which I had never done before, after maybe four or five finals. So I can say I’ve won every Platinum event on the PSA tour. The World Championships is the missing one. If you win anything during the season, you’re satisfied, so I’m obviously satisfied. But it’s actually a good motive to still have the World Championships on the list.”

On her physicality and match at the World Championships with Hania El Hammamy

NG – “I think it’s actually very good for the game. I don’t think the women’s game has ever had this kind of physicality. Obviously you had Nicol David, who was very physical and very fit, but I don’t think there was anyone else matching her physicality. Maybe Raneem [Elwelily].

“To have two players at the same time with this physicality and being able to produce this kind of match is something that’s good for the sport for sure. It was the match that I was very proud of because in a sense I didn’t think I played my best during it but I found a way and I fought very hard during it to be able to come on top of it at the end so I was very proud of myself to be able to have this character and find the way at the end to win it.”

On the competitiveness between herself and El Hammamy

NG – “You’re playing a semis of the World Championships. So obviously you will find some tension in a way, some not very good calls from the referee as well. Everything gets tense, it’s the hunger to wanting to reach the World Champs final. I think it’s nothing personal, it’s more like the will to win and I think when you get into competitive stages in the tournament, any player who wants to win at the end they’re going to find a way and I think it’s only about that.”

On her favourite moment of the season

NG – “I’d say the U.S. Open was a very good week. After losing at the pyramids, I had a shoulder injury at the end of the last season and I barely had a summer training window. Most people don’t know that I only started training 10 days before the season started and going into it I didn’t feel I was physically ready but I just found a way to get into the final which was a big achievement for me in the conditions that I was in. After the pyramids the season was starting and I was still not feeling very comfortable and it wasn’t easy during that time. I was feeling a bit down but I had a great entourage around me like Rodney [Martin] did a great job of of lifting me up and my husband as well and my family. It was only 10 days between the Pyramids and the US Open but it made a huge difference.”

“Going into the US Open, I started that tournament maybe not playing my best but with every single match I was improving and I think the semis and the final were maybe two of the best performances I had in my whole career to be honest. The week was very satisfying. The way I was playing, winning a third US Open in a row, which only Nicol David did. It was huge accomplishment for me.

“So by far the US Open will always have a special place in my heart and winning it three times was a huge achievement. Usually in a tournament, you would have a very good performance in one of the matches but to back it up and play well in the final as well was something very nice. I was really enjoying myself on court as well during that time. Sometimes during a tournament you find everything working your way, fluently and not doing much and I think that was one of the weeks.”

On her goals for next season

NG – “We always reassess what we’re doing and obviously the offseason is the perfect time to do that. Me and my team, we all we have a plan and we’re working on stuff. I’m not gonna talk about it right now. Maybe when I retire.

“The pressure is not there anymore, because I kind of did everything I wanted to do in the game. I reached World No.1 four times already. I’ve won every single tournament I wanted to of the tour. It’s only the World Championships left and I believe it’s going to come one day so I’m trying not to think about it too much. I totally believe that when you want something really badly, it doesn’t happen easily. So sometimes I just try to take off my mind and just put the work in and I always believe in timing and maybe there is a better path for me and we’ll just wait and see.”

On her El Gouna International performance

NG – “El Gouna always comes after the World Championships, it’s always hard to regroup after the Worlds. Whether you win or lose, to be honest. It’s a big achievement and you feel like you’re very high and you don’t really want to be competing for a  week or 10 days.

“Last year it was very hard for me to find a way to get into the tournament. I think that’s what I learned from last year. There was a tournament coming up, you have a chance to go back to World No.1, and you can finish the season on a high and I think that was a good thing to have El Gouna after the World Champs and I was very happy with the way I dealt with the pre tournament stuff that happened and during the tournament and tried to enjoy myself on court and having another 100-minute match and the conditions were brutal to be honest but also El Gouna was one of the good moments during the season and when you finish with a high, it’s a good feeling.”

For replays of all of Gohar’s matches from the season, head to the SQUASHTV replay page.