New PSA Platinum tournament in Cairo
By ALAN THATCHER
World No.1 Mohamed ElShorbagy, winner of last week’s Hong Kong Open, will look to keep his winning streak going when he opens up his CIB Black Ball Squash Open campaign against Hong Kong’s World No.14 Max Lee in this new PSA World Tour Platinum tournament which takes place between December 3-9 at the Black Ball Sporting Club in Cairo.
The CIB Black Ball Open will be the first major tournament to take place in Egypt’s capital since the men’s 2016 PSA World Championships and Alexandria-born ElShorbagy will look to extend his run of successive wins over Lee to three matches after both players receive a bye into round two of the event.
ElShorbagy is on the same side of the draw as World No.4 Tarek Momen, who ended a four-year PSA Tour title drought when he won the Channel VAS Championships earlier this season, while Karim Abdel Gawad, winner of the 2016 World Championship, will also feature in the top half of the draw.
Ramy Ashour, the man Gawad beat in that 2016 final, fails to feature at the event after withdrawing due to a persistent knee-injury which has prevented him from appearing at any tournaments this season so far while Mexican Cesar Salazar and Spaniard Borja Golan are also absent due to injury.
Meanwhile, just days after meeting in the final of the Hong Kong Open, World No.2 Ali Farag is seeded to meet ElShorbagy in the title decider once again but faces a number of difficult challenges en route, with the likes of World No.5 Simon Rösner, World No.7 Miguel Angel Rodriguez and World No.8 Paul Coll all in the lower half.
Matches held on the glass court will be shown live on SQUASHTV (Rest of World) and Eurosport Player (Europe only).
Entry to the first day of the tournament on Monday December 3 will be free of charge. Tickets for the rest of the tournament are available from TicketsMarche
A women’s Black Ball Open will take place in March 2019. The PSA World Tour Gold tournament will be staged at the Black Ball Sporting Club between March 11-15.
2018 CIB Black Ball Squash Open, Black Ball Sporting Club, Cairo, Egypt (PSA Platinum).
Main Draw:
[1] Mohamed ElShorbagy (EGY) [bye]
[9/16] Max Lee (HKG) [bye]
[17/32] Cameron Pilley (AUS) v Eain Yow Ng (MAS)
Olli Tuominen (FIN) v [17/32] Campbell Grayson (NZL)
[9/16] Nicolas Mueller (SUI) [bye]
[9/16] Diego Elias (PER) [bye]
[17/32] Tsz Fung Yip (HKG) v Nathan Lake (ENG)
[7] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) [bye]
[8] Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY)
[WC] Shehab Essam (EGY) v [17/32] Greg Lobban (SCO)
[17/32] Mazen Hesham (EGY) v Karim El Hammamy (EGY)
Peter Creed (WAL) v [17/32] Mathieu Castagnet (FRA)
[9/16] Raphael Kandra (GER) [bye]
[WC] Shady El Sherbiny (EGY) v [17/32] Tom Richards (ENG)
[9/16] Ryan Cuskelly (AUS) [bye]
[3] Tarek Momen (EGY) [bye]
[4] Simon Rösner (GER) [bye]
Omar Abdel Meguid (EGY) v [17/32] Alan Clyne (SCO)
[17/32] Gregoire Marche (FRA) v Mohamed Reda (EGY)
George Parker (ENG) v [17/32] Leo Au (HKG)
[17/32] Zahed Salem (EGY) v Mazen Gamal (EGY)
Edmon Lopez (ESP) v [17/32] Chris Simpson (ENG)
[17/32] Adrian Waller (ENG) v Todd Harrity (USA)
[6] Paul Coll (NZL) [bye]
[5] Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL) [bye]
[9/16] Omar Mosaad (EGY)
[17/32] Karim Ali Fathi (EGY) v Tayyab Aslam (PAK)
[9/16] Saurav Ghosal (IND) [bye]
[9/16] Declan James (ENG) [bye]
Mostafa Asal (EGY) v [17/32] Youssef Soliman (EGY)
[17/32] Lucas Serme (FRA) v Joshua Masters (ENG)
[2] Ali Farag [bye]
Picture courtesy of PSA