'Repeat World Championship Final Would Be Special' Says Elshorbagy by Nathan Clarke
photo squashpics.com
November 12, 2015
- World No.1 Mohamed Elshorbagy believes a repeat of last year’s
stunning World Championship final between himself and three-time World
Champion Ramy Ashour in the 2015 staging of the prestigious tournament,
which gets under in Bellevue, Washington on November 15, would be a
truly special encounter and is the matchup that squash fans the world
over want to see.
The Egyptian number one went head-to-head with compatriot Ashour in the
2014 instalment of squash’s most prestigious event with the latter
eventually prevailing after an epic five-game-thriller, despite
spending six months on the sidelines with a hamstring injury, that went
down as one of the greatest matches of all time.
The duo also met in the showpiece event of the 2012 World Championship
and find themselves on opposite sides of the draw this year, keeping
alive the prospect of a mouthwatering final clash. Elshorbagy, who has
only beaten Ashour once in eight previous attempts, says that both
players tend to raise their game when they go up against each other.
“I think the final that a lot of people in the sport want to see is Ramy versus me,” said Elshorbagy.
“When we play, we raise the bar for each other and play at such a high
pace. We put each other under so much pressure when we play and our
last few matches have been special. If we can both make it to the final
then I think everyone knows that it could be a really special match.
“He will want his title back again for certain. He’s been injured
lately but we saw what he can do before and at the NetSuite Open a few
weeks ago he showed again what he can do. He’ll be targeting this
tournament no doubt about it so we’ll see what happens when we get to
Bellevue.”
Elshorbagy, who last week won the second PSA World Series event of the
season, the Qatar Classic, is also wary of the challenges that
stalwarts Gregory Gaultier and Nick Matthew will pose in Seattle.
“Gaultier is in the best form at the moment,” he said. “He started the
season really well winning two titles in four events but, for me, I
think that’s good because he’s pushing me and making me work even
harder to be the best.
“He beat me at the US Open and he was the best player there so I have
to respect that - he deserved to win. He will be confident and
dangerous.
“And Nick has been dealing with injuries since we played in El Gouna
earlier this year but everyone knows that even at 60 per cent he’s
still the strongest player mentally and he will be giving everything to
win that title. He can never be discounted.”
The 2015 PSA Men’s World Championship gets under way on Sunday November
15 in Bellevue, Washington at the Meydenbauer Center and sees
Elshorbagy kickstart his tournament against Mexico’s Alfredo Avila.
