Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Mostafa Asal breaks into PSA world top ten

By SEAN REUTHE – Squash Mad Correspondent

World Junior Champion Mostafa Asal has broken into the top 10 of the PSA Men’s World Rankings for the first time after the 20-year-old rose three places to No.9 off the back of his title win at the CIB PSA World Tour Finals last week.

Asal defeated World No.2 Mohamed ElShorbagy to lift his first major PSA title at Cairo’s Mall of Arabia to cap a week which also saw him beat World No.1 Ali Farag, World Champion Tarek Momen and defending champion Marwan ElShorbagy.

Farag stays ahead of ElShorbagy, but the gap between them has been cut significantly, meaning that ElShorbagy can take the World No.1 spot from Farag at the PSA World Championships between July 14-22.

If Farag fails to make it to the final, or ElShorbagy makes it to the final, then the World No.1 spot will certainly change hands on August 1.

For now though, Farag has made it 20 months at World No.1, which means his total reign is now longer than English legend Nick Matthew, and he joins French veteran Gregory Gaultier in ninth place on the all-time longest reigning men’s World No.1 list.

Momen stays at No.3, while Paul Coll (No.4) and Marwan ElShorbagy complete the top five.

Karim Abdel Gawad stays at No.6 ahead of Fares Dessouky (No.7) and Diego Elias (No.8), while Welshman Joel Makin drops to No.10.

Colombia’s Miguel Rodriguez drops out of the top 10 for the first time since May 2018, while Egypt’s Mohamed Abouelghar falls to No.12. France’s Gregoire Marche rises a place to a career-high No.13 ranking, with Saurav Ghosal going the other way to No.14.

The rest of the top 20 is unchanged.

Austria’s Stefan Moser is the biggest mover on the men’s tour after he moved up 193 places to No.515 following his run to the quarter-finals of the Salzburg Open in June. Compatriot Mathias Ebenberger reached the same stage and he is the second biggest mover, rising 190 spots to No.509.

PSA Men’s World Rankings Top 20 – July 2021.

Picture and graphic courtesy of PSA

 

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