Farag on Return of World Champs and Tough Black Ball Draw
By RJ Mitchell
World No.1 Ali Farag has revealed his excitement at the news the 2020-21 PSA World Championships will be held in Chicago between July 10-17.
Tarek Momen is the reigning World Champion, having claimed the global title in Doha in 2019 but a year earlier Farag claimed his only World title with a 3-1 victory over Momen when the tournament was held in the Windy City for the first time, with the final being showcased in the Great Hall of the city’s iconic Union Station.
While a $1million prize-pot is once again up for grabs and split equally across the male and female events as the game’s showpiece event is presented by the Walter Family for a second time.
Message from the CEO: 2020 Recap and A Look Ahead to the New Year
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2020 was an unprecedented year in the history of squash, with the global COVID-19 pandemic plunging the sport into a period of uncertainty and fundamentally changing the way we all live our lives.
After a magnificent start to the year – which saw Camille Serme, Mohamed ElShorbagy, Nour El Sherbini, Ali Farag and Hania El Hammamy all lift major honours – we were forced into the incredibly difficult decision to suspend professional squash following the outbreak of COVID-19.
The suspension was initially planned for six weeks. Six weeks then turned into six months due to the ever-changing nature of the coronavirus before professional squash returned with a bang in September in Manchester.
Gawad and Coll crash out in PSA Black Ball Squash Open second round Tuesday, 15 December 2020
Defending champion Karim Abdel Gawad and New Zealand s Paul Coll were both knocked out of the Professional Squash Association (PSA) Black Ball Squash Open in Cairo as two top-four seeds exited the competition in the second round.
Fourth seed Coll was the first of the two to fall, losing 6-11, 11-8, 11-3, 4-11, 11-8 to Egypt s 11th seed, Mostafa Asal.
Asal had also defeated Coll in five games in the Egyptian Open quarter-finals in October.
Defending champion Gawad, seeded third, followed Coll after coming unstuck in an all-Egyptian tie against Fares Dessouky, seeded ninth.
Coll Excited for Asal Rematch at CIB Black Ball Open
Paul Coll has revealed he is relishing the prospect of a rematch with Mostafa Asal at the CIB Black Ball Open later today.
The World No.4 defeated France’s World No. 46, Victor Crouin, in straight games on Sunday and. With Asal defeating India’s Mahesh Mangaonkar in five games, the duo will do battle in the second round in a mouth-watering reprise of their 103-minute epic quarter-final at the CIB Egyptian Open, which the young Egyptian won 12-10 in a fifth game tie-break.
‘Superman’ now has a point to prove, with his coach, Rob Owen, admitting prior to this tournament that Coll had been “bullied” by Asal in a match that contained a number of collisions between the players and plenty of chatter with the officials.
CIB Black Ball Open RD2 Roundup: Dessouky Ends Gawad’s Title Defence
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Egypt’s World No.11 Fares Dessouky ended the title defence of fellow Egyptian and World No.5 Karim Abdel Gawad to reach the quarter-finals of the men’s CIB Black Ball Squash Open, PSA World Tour Gold tournament.
Dessouky, 26, is making his first appearance at this tournament after missing out on the inaugural 2018 edition due to injury, and he got the better of the only man ever to get his hands on this trophy, winning 11-6, 9-11, 3-11, 11-2, 11-3 in 52 minutes.
It was a back and forth encounter which saw the lead change hands multiple times but, after taking the third game comfortably, Gawad fell completely off the pace as Dessouky moved in for the kill, meaning there will be a new name on the men’s trophy this year.