Elshorbagy v Farag for World Series Men's Title, El Sherbini & El Welily Vie for Women's by Sean Reuthe
photos PSA
June 8, 2018
- England’s Nick Matthew has played the final match of his glittering
20-year-career after he lost out to World No.2 Ali Farag on a day that
saw an Egyptian quartet claim victories to reach the title deciders at
the ATCO PSA Dubai World Series Finals taking place inside Emirates
Golf Club.
37-year-old Matthew was set to retire after defeat to Germany’s Raphael
Kandra at last month’s Allam British Open meant he failed to qualify
for the World Series Finals, but a hamstring injury sustained by World
No.3 Marwan ElShorbagy saw the Yorkshireman get a late call-up.
Three wins out of three saw Matthew top Group A but his tournament –
and career – came to an end at the hands of Farag earlier today as he
fell to a 11-5, 11-7 defeat. Matthew, the most successful male English
squash player of all time, bows out with 35 PSA World Tour titles –
including three PSA World Championship crowns – to his name, while he
also claimed a trio of Commonwealth Games gold medals.
“I dared to dream for a second that I could go all the way but Ali was
slightly too good tonight. Even a week ago, if you’d have offered me a
semi-final place here I wouldn’t have believed it,” said Matthew, who
will take on a coaching and ambassadorial role at England Squash.
“A few people this week have been trying to talk me out of retirement
but that’s not happening. I’m 100 per cent going to stay in squash, I’m
going to have a rest this summer, I’ve got some camps in the US and
I’ll have a lot of family time and regroup.
“I’ve got a great role which I’m looking forward to doing with England
Squash and I’ll be growing my academy around the world. I’m still going
to play, I’m not going to totally stop, I’m too competitive.”
Farag said: “It’s extremely emotional, I knew that if I was close to
winning that they were going to be the last few points of Nick’s career.
“I didn’t want to talk about it at all because I think the more I
talked about it the more it would have gotten into my head. Only such a
legend would get a standing ovation for around 10 minutes.”
Farag will play World No.1 Mohamed ElShorbagy in the final after the
defending champion came through a cracker of a semi-final encounter
with Germany’s Simon Rösner in a repeat of their meeting at the same
stage of last year’s event.
Rösner squandered match ball on that occasion against eventual winner
ElShorbagy and, while he wasn’t able to quite get in a winning position
again, he made life difficult for the reigning World Champion, but
ultimately succumbed to a 12-10, 10-12, 11-3 defeat which sends
ElShorbagy through to an 11th final of the season.
“Every time it gets tough in any match I always tell myself that I live
for these kind of moments, these are the moments I was born for,” said
ElShorbagy.
“Ali’s fresh, he’s playing well and we haven’t played since last
November. It’s great to have the last match of the season between the
World No.1 and No.2, definitely.”
The top two players in the women’s game will go head-to-head in the
final as Nour El Sherbini and Raneem El Welily claimed wins over
France’s Camille Serme and World No.3 Nour El Tayeb.
El Sherbini, a losing finalist at last year’s tournament, picked up
where she left off after topping Group B with a 100 per cent record as
she overcame Serme by an 11-7, 9-11, 11-8 margin to ensure that she
will take on El Welily in a sixth major final this season.
“It’s always a tough match playing Camille,” said El Sherbini.
“It was really hard from the first point and I have no idea what I
would have done if it was longer than this [best of three] because I
was tired.
“I’m really hungry to win it, I never won it before and this is my
third year in a row coming here. It’s the second final so hopefully
this time it’s going to be my title.”
El Welily, meanwhile, came through a quick-fire victory over El Tayeb
to reach the final of this tournament for the first time since 2016.
“Nour is a really tough opponent,” said El Welily.
“This season has been great for her and we’ve had great battles. But
it’s the end of the season, it’s the last tournament and the last push.
We’ve all had tough pool matches and I’m happy with the way I pushed
myself, even if at the end I let go and gave her a slight opportunity
which she almost took.”
The finals of the 2017/18 ATCO PSA Dubai World Series Finals will take place later today at 20:00 local time (GMT+4).
The action will be shown live on SQUASHTV (Rest of World), Eurosport
Player (Europe only) and mainstream channels around the world, such as
BT Sport, beIN Sports, Fox Sports Australia and Astro.
Results: ATCO PSA Dubai World Series Finals – Men’s Semi-Finals [1] Mohamed ElShorbagy (EGY) bt [3] Simon Rösner (GER) 2-1: 12-10, 10-12, 11-3 (47m) [2] Ali Farag (EGY) bt [8] Nick Matthew (ENG) 2-0: 11-5, 11-7 (23m)
Draw – Men’s Final: To Be Played June 9 [1] Mohamed ElShorbagy (EGY) v [2] Ali Farag (EGY)
Results: ATCO PSA Dubai World Series Finals – Women’s Semi-Finals [1] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) bt [6] Camille Serme (FRA) 2-1: 11-7, 9-11, 11-8 (39m) [2] Raneem El Welily (EGY) bt [3] Nour El Tayeb (EGY) 2-0: 11-7, 11-9 (19m)
Draw – Women’s Final: To Be Played June 9 [1] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) v [2] Raneem El Welily (EGY)
