Ali Farag strengthens his lead in men’s CIB Road to Egypt standings
By SEAN REUTHE – Squash Mad Correspondent
World No.1 Ali Farag has strengthened his lead at the summit of the men’s CIB Road to Egypt Standings following his victory over New Zealand’s Paul Coll in the final of the Qatar Classic, PSA World Tour Platinum event in Doha on Saturday night.
Points for the CIB Road to Egypt Standings are on offer at all PSA World Tour events during the 2020-21 season as players bid to qualify for the season-ending CIB PSA World Tour Finals.
The World Tour Finals includes both a men’s and women’s tournament and brings together the reigning PSA World Champions and all PSA World Tour Platinum title winners. Any remaining places are then allocated to the highest ranked players on the CIB Road to Egypt Standings.
Farag had already qualified for the World Tour Finals following his win at the CIB Egyptian Open last month in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza and his victory over Coll made it back-to-back Platinum successes after the second men’s Platinum tournament of the season so far.
Farag sits top of the men’s standings with 5,800 points, 2,590 ahead of Egyptian Open runner-up Tarek Momen. Coll moves up two spots to third place and sits on 2,975 points, while reigning World Tour Finals champion Marwan ElShorbagy completes the top four.
ElShorbagy’s older brother, Mohamed, comes next in fifth, while Egypt’s Fares Dessouky, Peru’s Diego Elias and Welshman Joel Makin round off the top eight. World Junior Champion Mostafa Asal is hot on the heels of Makin and trails him by just 125 points.
World No.41 Youssef Ibrahim – who caused a major upset against Mohamed ElShorbagy in Doha – and former World No.1 Karim Abdel Gawad are also poised to crack the top eight if any of the players above them slip up in the next tournament.
The women’s CIB Road to Egypt Standings remain unchanged following the Egyptian Open in October. El Sherbini’s victory there has seen her qualify for the World Tour Finals and she sits atop the standings with 2,750 points under her belt.
She sits ahead of Nour El Tayeb, Nouran Gohar and Hania El Hammamy in an all-Egyptian top four, while Camille Serme, Salma Hany, Nele Gilis and Sarah-Jane Perry take the rest of the top eight spaces. New Zealand’s Joelle King just narrowly misses out on a top eight berth at present, but is only 30 points behind Perry.
The next PSA World Tour event will be the CIB PSA Black Ball Open in December. The women’s tournament will take place between December 7-12, with the men’s event held between December 13-18.
The 20-21 CIB PSA World Tour Finals are planned to take place next summer in Cairo. For more information, visit the official website and follow the PSA World Tour on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Road To Egypt Standings.
Pictures courtesy of PSA