Egyptian Squash Players Nour El-Sherbini and Ali Farag Win PSA World Championship in Chicago

Egyptian squash players Nour El-Sherbini and Ali Farag are awarded 2018-2019 PSA World Squash Championship titles for women and men on 2 March for the third time in a row.

The championship began on 26 February to 2 March in Chicago, USA. The Egyptian duo El-Sherbini and Farag landed the titles after defeating Nour El Tayeb and Tarek Momen respectively.

Two-time champion and world number two El-Sherbini faced a tough test to snatch the title as she defeated her compatriot Nour El-Tayeb

Alexandria-based 23-year-old El Sherbini, who is a three times World Champion winner and the youngest woman to win the Women’s World Championship, defeated her competitor El Tayeb 3-1 (11-6, 11-5, 10-12 and 15-13) in 57 minutes.

“I think I’m out of words!” El-Sherbini said after scoring her winning point.

“The last two games were really close and she was coming back. I think she likes it like that – she was a little bit tense in the first two games and then she started to relax. I was trying to focus point after point and I’m really happy of course,” she reflected.

“It was really tough tournament for me, and a lot of things happened before I came here and behind the scenes. But I’m really glad that I came because one of the options was that I wouldn’t be able to come.”

“I was improving match after match and I had a lot of tough matches in the earlier rounds but I’m really glad that I managed to get everything together this week.”

Farag became the number one men’s player after defeating Momen 3-1 (11-5, 11-13, 13-11 and 11-3) in 79 minutes.

“If five years back you had told me that I would be standing here holding the World Championship trophy then no chance would I have believed you,” the 26-year-old cheered.

“As a senior at college I never thought about going pro, and to be here today, and the main driving force behind it is Nour, I’m deeply blessed to have her in my life, and she is the one who pushed me to go pro,” he highlighted.

“Tarek and I have been practicing together for the last 10 years and I hardly ever beat him. It’s always tough against him. I see how hard he works every day and I was a bit lucky today in the third and I think that made the difference.”