The renowned CIB PSA World Finals are taking place in Egypt for the first time! It’s one of the most important tournaments in the series, and being held here is undoubtedly something to be proud of.

With six matches, the finals started last night, the 9th of June, at the Mall of Arabia. Raneem El Welily, world number 1, managed to win two games against world no.9, Tesni Evans, who represents Wales. Raneem expressed her happiness that this time the finals are in Egypt saying, “As Egyptians, we are very lucky to be playing the last tournament at home and not having to travel on a plane. We are very lucky to be able to play in front of our home crowd, playing in a tournament where my family and coaches can watch.”

Following them was Mohamed El Shorbagy, world number 2, who played against Peruvian, Diego Elias. El Shorbagy, winner of the British Open Squash 2019 and the winner of the PSA world finals for the past two years, struck again, winning this round.

Another Egyptian making us proud is Tarek Mo’men, world number 3, who won his match against Germany’s Simon Rösner. This was not his first time to play against Simon; Mo’men won back at the El Gouna international squash earlier this year. However, he sadly suffered an injury which made him take a break to recover, leaving him worried about whether he could actually win this one or not.

“I came into this tournament with no expectations. I took some time off to sort a minor injury and I’m in good shape now. With practice, Ramadan, and all the players at the British Open, so I had no players to train with, and so I didn’t have much match practice”, Mo’men said. “Coming here I knew I could play well, but at the same time I could have my phases, and I was really afraid this might happen, but the way I handled it just proved to me that there is an improvement for me this season.”

Ali Farag also made waves last night, proving to us all that he deserves being world no.1, with an impressive performance against the Egyptian Mohamed Abouelghar. Ali sounded really happy for this win as he said, “I’m still learning a lot about myself. Coming into this tournament, I knew I needed a bit of a rest and I didn’t need to train anymore as it has been a long season and I had to be smart with my head and body. I took a couple of days off by the beach and did some exercises away from squash, which was needed, and I think that made me sharp ahead of this tournament.”

Sadly, Nour El Sherbiny was defeated, but we’re still proud of her performance.

We will keep you updated, but if you want to attend one of the matches, you can get your ticket now for only EGP 100 from Ticketsmarche.

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By Yara Tarek