Hong Kong FC Open: Top Seeds Advance To Final In Contrasting Styles

It will be an all-Egyptian final in the last PSA World Tour event of the year in the Hong Kong FC Open as top seeds Marwan ElShorbagy and Mazen Hesham progressed in contrasting styles to set up a mouth watering clash for the title.

ElShorbagy overcame compatriot Youssef Soliman in a brutal five-set clash to reach the final. After conceding the opening game, Soliman showed his class and quality to bounce back and take the game to the World No.6. He took the next two games wining 11-3, 13-11 to take a 2-1 lead.

ElShorbagy wasn’t going to go away easily however and managed to wrestle back control of the match and after levelling the score at 2-2 he ran through and converted the match, taking the fifth game 11-8 and moving into his fourth final of the season.

His opponent will be recent Malaysian Open Champion and No.2 seed Mazen Hesham, who defeated surprise semi-finalist Dimitri Steinmann in straight games.

The ‘Black Falcon’ has been in great form recently and has spoken about how he is relishing being injury free and finally feels he is playing the squash that he has always been capable of. Despite the speed of the Swiss No.2, Steinmann couldn’t find a way into the match and struggled to dictate the pace or get control. Hesham won 11-4, 11-7, 11-6 in 41 minutes.

Despite ElShorbagy holding a 5-2 advantage over Hesham, the later has won the last two encounters between the two, coming at the Houston Open and the British Open earlier this year.

Results: Hong Kong FC Open 2022 – Semi-Finals

[1] Marwan ElShorbagy (EGY) bt [3] Youssef Soliman (EGY) 3-2: 11-6, 3-11, 11-13, 11-6, 11-8 (66m)

[2] Mazen Hesham (EGY) bt Dimitri Steinmann (SUI) 3-0: 11-4, 11-7, 11-6 (41m)

Draw: Hong Kong FC Open 2022 – Final

[1] Marwan ElShorbagy (EGY) v [2] Mazen Hesham (EGY)