Three months after they claimed men and women’s championship in 2016 JP Morgan Tournament of Champions at New York’s Grand Central Terminal, the Egyptian duo of Mohamed Elshorbagy and Nour El Sherbini also won the 2016 Allam British Open, PSA World Series Tournament at London on Sunday. The final matches were but the culmination of Egypt’s complete dominance on the game of squash as all the four finalists were Egyptian men and women. With an all-Egyptian cast, both titles would have gone to Egypt anyway. There was just one difference between the champions; while Elshorbagy successfully defended his 2015 title, it was the first time that El Sherbini has won the British Open. Since no Egyptian woman has ever won the British Open, El Sherbini also stole the honor of the first-ever Egyptian woman to do so.
Ashour carried the strains of his grueling semifinal with the French world champion Gaultier and allowed Elshorbagy to dominate from the very start. As the crowd watched the match in Hull’s Airco Arena, Elshorbagy won the first game for the loss of just two points even as Ashour struggled to adjust his pace against the world no.1. Elshorbagy continued relentlessly and with Ashour’s movements being heavily restricted, took the next two games with consummate ease. In the end, Elshorbagy wound up the proceeding with an 11-2, 11-5, 11-9 victory in just 28 minutes. The world no.1 thus, not only retained his 2015 but scored his fifth consecutive PSA World Series victory. In addition, the celebrated Egyptian also ended his four-match losing streak against Ashour, who won the British Open in 2013.
