Egyptian duo Nouran Gohar and Hania El Hammamy will reignite their fierce rivalry at the upcoming CIB PSA World Tour Finals after both players were drawn together in Group A of the women’s event.
Held between June 20-25 at Cairo’s brand-new EDNC SODIC venue, the CIB PSA World Tour Finals brings together the top eight players on the CIB Road to Egypt Standings for an event which will bring the curtain down on the 2022-23 PSA World Tour season.
Points for the CIB Road to Egypt Standings were on offer at all PSA World Tour events throughout the campaign, while winning a PSA World Tour Platinum trophy or the PSA World Championship trophy secured automatic qualification.
World No.1 Gohar finished top of the women’s standings and will headline Group A alongside No.3 seed El Hammamy. The pair contested the fifth-longest women’s match of all time at the El Gouna International earlier this month, with their mammoth battle totalling 107 minutes. It was the fifth time they had met this season, with Gohar winning three matches to El Hammamy’s two.
Belgium’s World No.7 Nele Gilis and USA’s World No.9 Olivia Fiechter are the other two players drawn in Group A, with both players in line to make their World Tour Finals debuts. Gilis became the first Belgian player to reach a Platinum final in El Gouna, while Fiechter – who finished ninth on the CIB Road to Egypt Standings – has received a late call-up to the event following the withdrawal of compatriot Amanda Sobhy due to an adductor injury.
Defending champion Nour El Sherbini tops Group B after finishing second on the standings. El Sherbini has a chance to reclaim the World No.1 spot in Cairo if she can retain her title and Gohar fails to reach the title decider. To get that far, El Sherbini must navigate a group which includes World No.4 Joelle King, World No.6 Nour El Tayeb and World No.8 Georgina Kennedy.
Peru’s Diego Elias is seeded at No.1 in the men’s event and he will aim to become the first non-Egyptian since Gregory Gaultier in 2016 to win the World Tour Finals. There have been four different World No.1s in the men’s game this season and Elias is joined in Group A by the man he replaced at the summit of the rankings in April, Mostafa Asal.
Asal is hoping to become the first man since Peter Nicol in 2001 to win three World Tour Finals titles in a row. 2020 champion Marwan ElShorbagy and debutant Victor Crouin will also appear in Group A.
Group B will be headed up by current World No.1 Ali Farag, who has won his last four tournaments in succession. He is yet to win the World Tour Finals but did reach the title decider in 2018, when he lost to two-time winner Mohamed ElShorbagy. ElShorbagy will feature alongside Farag in Group B and they will be joined by last year’s runner-up Paul Coll and World No.8 Mazen Hesham.
A record $405,000 prize fund will be split equally across both the women’s and men’s events as players compete in a best-of-three games group stage between June 20-23. The top two from each group qualify for the knockout semi-finals, where a place in the best-of-five games title decider will await the winner of those fixtures.
Group stage action will begin on Tuesday June 20 at 19:15 (GMT+3). Six matches will be played per night for the first four days of the event until the group stage has drawn to a close. Group stage matches will take place at 19:15, 19:45, 20:30, 21:00, 21:45 and 22:15 between June 20-23. The semi-finals will be held at 20:00 on Saturday June 24. The finals will begin at 20:00 on Sunday June 25.
All matches will be held at Cairo’s EDNC SODIC and fixtures will be streamed live on SQUASHTV. The semi-finals and finals will also be shown live on the channels of contracted broadcast partners.
Squash fans can stay up-to-date with news from the tournament by following the PSA World Tour on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok or by visiting the official tournament website.
2022-23 CIB PSA World Tour Finals – Group Draw
