Season Review: Outstanding Performers Part Two

Another PSA World Tour season is in the history books with a record 33 World Tour events taking place, with 20 different players capturing the titles throughout the season. There were some amazing matches and performances on show across many spectacular events and we’ve identified the outstanding performers from the World Tour from this 2022-23 season.

Read part one here.

Nouran Gohar

Titles Won: 6

Finals Reached: 10

Matches Played: 52

Matches Won: 47 (90.3%)

What a season it was for Egypt’s Nouran Gohar. ‘The Terminator’ converted six times from 10 finals, only losing 5 times throughout the season over 11 events. Incredible consistency from the World No.1.

A Gold event title was first up for Gohar this season as she confidently claimed the South Western Women’s Open in Houston to set herself up for a successful season. Three Platinum events followed for Gohar in 2022 in which she claimed one (the U.S. Open), finished runner up in one (the Egyptian Open) and lost in the semi-finals of the Hong Kong Open. Both of her losses came to Hania El Hammamy, a player who Gohar would clash with on seven occasions throughout the season.

The World No.1 was dominant at the turn of the year as she reached the final of the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions but was forced to retire during the match with a wrist injury, handing the title to Nour El Sherbini. Gohar bounced back from that with back-to-back titles at the Gaynor Cup and Black Ball Open in great style, only dropping three individual games throughout the two events.

Nour El Sherbini has been a thorn in Gohar’s side for quite a few seasons now and ‘The Warrior Princess’ was again as the two biggest events on the calendar came around. Gohar was on the receiving end of two masterclass performances by El Sherbini in the finals of both the British Open and PSA World Championships. Gohar will have to wait at least another year to potentially get her hands on that elusive World title.

In typical Gohar fashion, she finished the season strongly, claiming the El Gouna International title after a 3-0 final win over surprise finalist Nele Gilis. She then backed that up with a win at the PSA World Tour Finals, beating Hania El Hammamy 12-10 in the fifth game in the longest women’s match in PSA history – a mind-blowing 130 minutes.

Mostafa Asal

Titles Won: 4

Finals Reached: 5

Matches Played: 46

Matches Won: 36 (78.2%)

Big things were expected from ‘The Raging Bull’ Mostafa Asal after his fantastic end to last season and when he let his squash do the talking, he was able to win multiple major trophies.

Asal recorded two semi-final appearances to start off his latest campaign at both the Qatar Classic, losing out to idol Mohamed ElShorbagy, and the Egyptian Open, where he fell to Ali Farag. Asal then returned to Philadelphia in a bid to try and retain his U.S. Open crown. In a freak situation, Asal was disqualified from the event in his opening match after hitting Lucas Serme in the head with the ball.

The young Egyptian returned with a bang at the Grasshopper Cup as he sliced his way through the draw, eventually beating Marwan ElShorbagy 3-0 in the final. After an injury forced him out of a clash with Diego Elias in Singapore, Asal got the chance to take on the Peruvian in the next event in Hong Kong. Asal trailed 2-0 but came back in emphatic fashion to claim the next three games and his third Platinum event.

That win in Hong Kong gave Asal the chance to become World No.1 for the first time in Houston and the 21-year-old took that opportunity in controversial fashion, beating Marwan ElShorbagy in the semi-finals and then claimed the title by beating the older ElShorbagy brother, Mohamed.

Asal then had a disapointing run of events (by his standards) up until the PSA World Championships, while he missed out on the British Open due to a suspension. He lost out in the semi-finals to eventual winner Ali Farag and did so again in the El Gouna International final. Asal found top form at the PSA World Tour Finals however to lift the title for a third time.

Nour El Sherbini

Titles Won: 4

Finals Reached: 6

Matches Played: 44

Matches Won: 36 (86%)

World Champion and World No.2 Nour El Sherbini endured a topsy-turvy kind of season with highs and lows filtered throughout. She lost out in the semi-finals of her first event of the season at the Egyptian Open to Hania El Hammamy before losing in the U.S Open final to Nouran Gohar. Her first win of the season came at the next event in Switzerland, where she had to battle hard to fend off compatriots Rowan Elaraby and El Hammamy to lift the title.

El Hammamy got her revenge in the next event in Hong Kong however as El Sherbini had to settle for second place yet again. El Sherbini returned to winning ways in New York in the New Year, beating Hania El Hammamy in the semi-finals of the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions and then coming through against Nouran Gohar in the final after the top seed retired injured.

A disappointing Black Ball Open result was then followed up with two amazing tournaments for the Egyptian as she claimed her fourth British Open title and her seventh PSA World Championships title. El Sherbini faced Nouran Gohar in both finals and recorded two 3-0 wins to not only claim the titles but return to World No.1 for the first time since March 2022.

El Sherbini couldn’t carry that form into the final two events of the season as she lost out to Belgium’s Nele Gilis in the semi-finals at the El Gouna International, which resulted in losing her World No.1 spot yet again to Gohar. The World No.1 then defeated El Sherbini in the last four of the CIB PSA World Tour Finals to move further ahead in the rankings.

Diego Elias

Titles Won: 4

Finals Reached: 8

Matches Played: 63

Matches Won: 49 (77.7%)

Peruvian Puma Diego Elias was one of the most consistent players on the PSA World Tour in the 2022-23 season and seemed to step up his game in both quality and maturity. The 26-year-old had spoken about the fitness work that he did in pre season and attributes his success to that block of training.

It wasn’t the most successful start to the season for the Peruvian, however, as Elias lost out in two close 3-2 matches to Tarek Momen and Paul Coll in the Qatar Classic and Egyptian Open, before losing 2-1 to Marwan ElShorbagy at the NetSuite Open in San Francisco. Elias found top form at the U.S. Open in Philadelphia though and defeated Joel Makin and Mohamed ElShorbagy both 3-0 to reach the final. Ali Farag was forced to withdraw after just one point to hand Elias his second Platinum title.

After a runner up finish at the Singapore Open, Elias again made his way into another Platinum final in Hong Kong and looked set to secure a third Platinum win after storming to a 2-0 lead. Mostafa Asal had other ideas though and came back to spoil Elias’ party. Elias was a different animal in the new year and it wasn’t long before he did convert his third major event as he sauntered his way through the draw to win the J.P Morgan Tournament of Champions title.

The success didn’t stop there for the Peruvian as he secured a hat-trick of titles, winning two Silver events at the Pittsburgh Open and Motor City Open whilst only dropping three games across the two tournaments. Elias had now given himself a golden chance of becoming World No.1 for the first time in his career. Mohamed ElShorbagy denied Elias at the Black Ball Open, and the Peruvian then looked to be feeling the pressure at the Canary Wharf Classic and Optasia Championships as he exited early.

But Karim Abdel Gawad’s win over ElShorbagy in the British Open in May guaranteed Elias would become the first South American man to reach No.1 on the Monday following the event. Elias still reached the final but lost out to Ali Farag in four games. Despite Gawad being the player that took Elias to World No.1, he then denied Elias a place in the PSA World Championships semi-finals in Chicago after a four-game match went the way of the Egyptian.

A semi-final and final then followed for Elias at the El Gouna International and CIB PSA World Tour Finals, taking his finals total to 8 for the season. All in all, the best season of Elias’ career could have been even more successful, but with time on his side, more is definitely to come from the highest ranked South American ever.

Watch the best of the 2022-23 PSA World Tour action over on SQUASHTV.