- Mostafa Asal was completely dominant against Karim Abdel Gawad, winning 11-6, 11-3, 11-4 in just 39 minutes. Gawad simply never found a way into the match.
To be noted: Asal has changed coach. James Willstrop is out, and Peter Marshall is in,
- Diego Elias turned his semi-final against Paul Coll completely on its head.
Coll was almost flawless early on, taking the first 11-4 and leading 6-1 in the second — then everything changed. Elias won 21 of the next 24 points and never looked back, taking the match 3-1.
- Hania El Hammamy survived another epic against Sivasangari Subramaniam, winning 12-10 in the fifth after 86 minutes.
Siva had been superb, taking the third and pushing Hania all the way, before the defending champion produced an astonishing 11-0 fourth and edged another dramatic and nail-biting decider. Hania summed up her mentality perfectly:
“I’m a fighter. If I’m going to lose, I’m going to give every single thing I can on court.”
And on what is quickly becoming one of the great new rivalries:
“I like to feel I’m winning the mental battle when I leave the court.”
- Amina Orfi then ended Nouran Gohar’s extraordinary run, 3-1, in a 71-minute battle.
For Nouran, the issue now is not physical fitness, but squash fitness:
“It’s in my head, I need to find again: when to attack, when to slow down, when to talk to the referee, when to keep going.”
But the real story came afterwards. Nouran revealed that her comeback has been about far more than returning after the birth of her daughter.
“I had a blood clot. I nearly died, actually, and I have two stents in my leg right now.”
Suddenly, everything she has achieved this week looks different. And perhaps the most important line of all:
“It’s about convincing myself that this is where I belong.”
