In historic first, Egyptians dominate British Open squash finals

The four finalists for the British Open Squash Championships will all be Egyptian, guaranteeing an Egyptian champion and marking a historic first for the competition.

Egyptian players swept the male and female semi-finals with Ramy Ashour, Mohamed al-Shorbagy, Nouran Gohar and Nour al-Sherbini all emerging victorious. This is the first time that a single nation has provided finalists in both the male and female leagues since Australia in 1977.

The British Open is the oldest and most established competition in squash.

Ashour beat French player Gregory Gaultier in the semi-final, after a 74-minute game that ended 3-2. Ashour is ranked number five in the world, while Gaultier is ranked number two.

Ashour will now face Shorbagy, who was ranked the number one player in 2014 and is the defending champion of the British Open, in the finals. Ashour previously beat Shorbagy in the World Open in both 2012 and 2014.

Shorbagy told squash website SquashTV that he is looking forward to playing Ashour in the final. “If we both stay injury-free, we’re going to give something special to our sport. He played an amazing match today because Greg [Gaultier] was playing so well and it was great to see him moving and he has been getting better every day. I am sure that we will have an amazing match in front of an amazing crowd tomorrow,” he said.

Twenty-year-old Sherbini beat five-time champion Nicol David in the semi-final, and previously came close to winning the British Open in 2012 before being defeated by David in the final. After her victory, Sherbini posted on her Facebook, “Been trying since 2012 to get back to the final of the most prestigious event on tour and I finally did it. Happy with my performance and hopefully one last push tomorrow.”

Eighteen-year-old Nouran Gohar beat defending champion Camille Serme, making her the second youngest finalist in the women’s British Open history. The youngest finalist was Sherbini, who became a finalist in 2012 at the age of 16. Gohar told SquashTV that winning was “amazing, it’s a very good thing, it’s my biggest achievement so far being in the British Open final.”  

Egypt’s squash players have consistently ranked highly internationally. In 2015, both the male and female number one players were Egyptians from Alexandria, while 10 Egyptians are in the top 10 of both the male and female squash rankings worldwide.