The season ending Xbox PSA World Tour Finals are less than a week away as 16 players will battle it out to be crowned the World Tour Finals champions. The event will see the top eight men and women in the world square off in group matches before the top two of each group move forward to the semi-finals and finals.
Throughout the years, this event has produced some stellar matches and history making moments. We’re hoping for the same again this year and with the players now locked in, that’s exactly what we’re expecting.
To get you in the mood for the final action of the 23/24 World Tour season, we’ve taken a look back at last years event to remind ourselves what happened and reminisce on an event that had it all.
Group stages
In the women’s draw, defending champion Hania El Hammamy was in superb form and clinically despatched all of her three opponents, including Nouran Gohar. El Hammamy topped the group whilst Gohar relied on wins against debutants Nele Gilis and Olivia Weaver to see her claim second place and move through to the semis. In the other group, World No.1 Nour ElSherbini was just as dominant as El Hammamy, as she won all of her three matches in convincing fashion.
The battle for the remaining semi-final spot was a tense one with Nour El Tayeb, Georgina Kennedy and Joelle King all level after the three games on matches won and lost. Therefore, it was down to games won throughout the group stage matches and thanks to stealing a game off Elsherbini and Kennedy and then beating King 2-0 on the final day, El Tayeb claimed the place in the final four.
Over in the men’s competition, not many could see past an Ali Farag win after the impressive end to the season that he had. He picked up right where he left off, winning all of his group stage games to top his group and secure a spot in the semis. England’s Mohamed Elshorbagy would also progress from Group B after he used all of his experience to defeat Paul Coll and Tarek Momen to advance.
In Group A, top seed Diego Elias and defending champion Mostafa Asal advanced to the semi-finals after earning more points than Mazen Hesham and Victor Crouin. After both scoring 2-0 wins in their first matches, Elias and Asal were involved in a bruising contest that lasted 90 minutes, with Asal eventually coming through in three games.
Semi-Finals
The winners of each group would now face the runners up from the other group in the semi-final matches. Hania El Hammamy was the first to book a place in the final as she defeated Nour El Tayeb in straight games. Then elder Egyptian was struggling to cope with the intensity of El Hammamy’s play at the end of a long season. El Hammamy’s final opponent would be familiar foe Nouran Gohar, after ‘the Terminator’ came through a 3-game clash with World No.1 Nour ElSherbini.
The first men’s finalists was Peru’s Diego Elias after the top seed wasted no time at all in moving past former winner Mohamed Elshorbagy. Elias’ smooth style was in full flow as he worked the tiring frame of Elshorbagy all over the court constantly. The 2017 World Champion was unable to get over 6 points in either game as Elias secured the win in 30 minutes. Mostafa Asal scored the win of the day in the final semi-final as he overcame compatriot and World No.1 Ali Farag in emphatic fashion to give himself a chance at claiming a third consecutive World Tour Finals title. Asal was unplayable against Farag, moving well, hitting his targets and simply playing tremendous squash. He won 11-2, 11-5 to upset the seedings and earn a spot in the finals.
Finals
In what will go down as one of the most dramatic finals day in the history of squash, two spellbinding matches took place to determine the 22/23 CIB World Tour Finals champions.
A historic women’s final took place first as a fierce rivalry reached boiling point between Hania El Hammamy and Nouran Gohar. The former took the lead twice throughout the match to lead 2-1 and place one hand on a second title. Gohar had other ideas however and battled back to take the fourth game 11-6 to force a fifth. The final game was as intense as it gets, both players determined to not give an inch to the other and home their ground wherever they could. The game lasted 33 minutes in total with 18 referee decisions. In a scrappy end to the match it was Gohar who managed to come out on the right side of a decision to take the game 12-10 and claim the title.
After needing to warm up several times over, the men were next onto court as Asal took on Elias for his third successive title. The Peruvian Tok the opening game in great style, firing the ball into all four corners and forcing errors from the racket of Asal. ‘the Raging Bull’ didn’t take long to fin his stride however and with an increase in speed onto the ball, Asal started to dominate the rallies. The Egyptian crowd were fully supporting their player which only spurred the defending champion on. He ran through to take the next three games 11-6, 11-3, 11-5 to win his third successive World Tour Finals title.
This season’s event gets underway on the 18 June with all action streamed live on SQUASHTV.
