PARIS — Egyptian duo Nour el-Sherbini and Mostafa Asal have been crowned the Paris Squash 2024 champions after they claimed respective wins over current women’s World Champion Nouran Gohar and men’s World No.1 Ali Farag.
Asal and El Sherbini managed to stretch their unbeaten starts to the 2024/25 PSA Squash Tour to ten matches apiece inside the spectacular Cirque d’Hiver Bouglione, having both won the Diamond-level CIB Egyptian Open titles earlier this month.
The first match of the evening saw El-Sherbini fight back from 2-1 down to claim victory over fierce rival Gohar in a see-saw five-game encounter.
In a match where both Gohar and El-Sherbini’s levels peaked and dipped at numerous points, it was ‘The Warrior Princess’ who managed to eventually seal the win by a 6-11, 11-3, 8-11, 11-7, 11-4 scoreline.
After a slow start that saw El Sherbini hit seven unforced errors in the first game alone, and Gohar take the opener without hitting a single winner, the defending champion bounced back to draw the scoreboard level.
The pair traded games to move to a fifth, but it was El Sherbini who then found her very best squash at the right time, taking dominance of the ’T’ and hurting Gohar with her straight, deceptive hitting down both wings. After racing into a 5-0 lead in the decider, El Sherbini wasn’t to be stopped, claiming victory after 64 minutes of action.
After the match, El Sherbini said: “Nouran always makes it challenging. She always tries to change things and improve and she takes the edge for a while. Then I try to figure it out and take the edge for a while, so we keep teasing each other.
“I think that’s why it’s always like this. It’s one of the best matches, and, hopefully, it’s always going to be like this.”
In the men’s final, World No.2 Asal claimed victory over 2023 Paris Squash champion Farag by an 11-7, 11-8, 4-11, 11-7 scoreline.
Both players arrived into the match with physical issues – Farag returning to the court less than 24 hours after his mammoth 94-minute encounter with Diego Elias and Asal admitting to bruising on his right leg and right hand after his semi-final win over Paul Coll.
However, it was Asal who came out the blocks the quicker of the two, striking the right balance between aggression and control and pushing a fatigued Farag around all four corners of the court.
Despite Farag enjoying a brief spell of dominance in a one-sided third game, Asal held strong to complete his four-game win after 55 minutes of action.
“I was almost not going to play the match,” Asal said after the match. “My hand was just unbelievably bruised. I came here at 15:30, and I couldn’t hit the ball at all.
“I want to thank my team, including James Willstrop – they just pushed me all the way. Having someone in your corner, a former World No.1, who’s dealt with all of these things before, is amazing.”
For all four finalists, attentions now turn to the Platinum-level Q-Terminals Qatar Classic 2024, which will take placebetween September 30th to October 5th at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex in Doha.
World No.2 Gohar delivered a confident and powerful performance as she battled past arch-rival Hania el-Hammamy in four games to book her spot in the Paris Squash 2024 final.
Gohar, who came into the match having won their three previous meetings on the PSA Tour, extended this run with a 11-6, 11-1, 9-11, 11-6 victory over the World No.3.
The current World Champion flew out of the blocks in typical ‘Terminator’ style, finding her targets to devastating effect and managing to push El-Hammamy deep in the court.
After taking a the opening game in just eight minutes, an even more dominant second would follow, with Gohar winning ten unanswered points in a flash. Despite El-Hammamy avoiding a second-game whitewash, Gohar moved into a 2-0 lead after 23 minutes of action.
A resurgent El-Hammamy returned to the court after the game break, hunting down the ball to greater effect and putting Gohar under pressure with some heavier hitting into the back two corners.
‘The Leopard’ traded points with Gohar up to the end-phases of the third and managed to pull away at just the right time, reducing the deficit to 2-1.
A day after twice coming from behind to defeat Fayrouz Aboelkheir in five games, El Hammamy was eying up another comeback victory, as she stayed in touch with Gohar into the mid-phases of game four.
However, the comeback wasn’t to be, with the No.2 seed moving to match ball after 71 minutes of action, and converting the victory at the first time of asking.
After the match, Gohar said: “Hania is such a fighter. I think I played really well in the first game and I was hitting my targets really well, my shot game was on point.
