ElShorbagy and Gohar Capture Black Ball Open Titles by Sean Reuthe
photos PSA
March 7, 2023
- Mohamed ElShorbagy and Nouran Gohar are the 2023 Black Ball Squash
Open champions after they achieved respective wins over Tarek Momen and
Hania El Hammamy at the Black Ball Sporting Club earlier today.
No.5 seed ElShorbagy has won the PSA World
Tour Gold event for the first time following a 14-12, 11-8, 11-7
victory over No.7 seed Momen. It’s ElShorbagy’s fifth PSA title of the
season and the Englishman has now won 49 PSA events during his
illustrious career - which puts him joint fourth on the all-time men’s
winners list, tied with the great Peter Nicol.
ElShorbagy, who had won 22 of 27 matches
against Momen coming into the fixture, was pushed all the way by his
opponent in a tense opening game before engineering some breathing
space for himself by taking the second. Momen then squandered a 6-1
lead in the third game as the man known as ‘The Beast’ came back to
seal the win in straight games.
“We go way back and have played so many times over the years,” said ElShorbagy afterwards.
“We’ve been great rivals, with respect. In
Egypt, there have been a lot of great champions, in the past, present
and, I’m sure, in the future. For me, Tarek is by far the most
consistent and best ever Egyptian player to have played in his 30s.
“We’ve had a great week here, there have
been amazing matches in the men’s and women’s draw. We’ve had everyone
speak about the quality of the matches and the quality of the sport.
That’s what we really want as a sport, I’m really happy that we can see
that and I hope all the players can keep playing this kind of quality
and we can take it to the next level at the next tournament and the
tournament after.”
Meanwhile, Gohar has successfully retained
her Black Ball Open title following an 11-9, 8-11, 12-10, 11-5 victory
over No.3 seed Hania El Hammamy. It’s the World No.1s fourth trophy of
the campaign as well as the 21st of her career to date.
It was a closely-fought contest as it
always is between these two and Gohar captured a crucial third game on
the tie-break before powering to the win in the fourth to end a
two-match losing run to El Hammamy.
“It means a lot to come back and win this,” Gohar said.
“I had to pull out of the final at the ToC
and it was heartbreaking for me. I’ve been consistent and have reached
the final of every event, so I felt I had more. This week has given me
a big boost and having my family here as well as my friends and the
fans makes a big difference.
“She [El Hammamy] is such a competitor and
she’s very feisty. I enjoy our matches because we bring the best out of
each other, which makes it more enjoyable when I win it at the end.”
The next stop on the PSA World Tour will be
the Canary Wharf Classic, PSA World Tour Gold event, which will take
place between March 12-17 at London’s East Wintergarden. The event will
be shown live on SQUASHTV.
