Egyptian duo Nouran Gohar and Hania El Hammamy will reignite their fierce rivalry at the upcoming CIB PSA World Tour Finals after both players were drawn together in Group A of the women’s event.
A record $405,000 prize fund will be split equally across both the women’s and men’s events as players compete in a best-of-three games.
Held between June 20-25 at Cairo’s brand-new EDNC SODIC venue, the World Tour Finals brings together the top eight players on the CIB Road to Egypt Standings for an event which will bring the curtain down on the 2022-23 PSA World Tour season.
World No.1 Gohar finished top of the women’s standings and will headline Group A alongside No.3 seed El Hammamy. The pair contested the fifth-longest women’s match of all time at the El Gouna International earlier this month, with their mammoth battle totalling 107 minutes. It was the fifth time they had met this season, with Gohar winning three matches to El Hammamy’s two.
Belgium’s World No.7 Nele Gilis and USA’s World No.9 Olivia Fiechter are the other two players drawn in Group A, with both players in line to make their World Tour Finals debuts. Gilis became the first Belgian player ever to reach a Platinum final in El Gouna, while Fiechter – who finished ninth on the CIB Road to Egypt Standings – has received a late call-up to the event following the withdrawal of compatriot Amanda Sobhy due to an adductor injury.
Defending champion Nour El Sherbini tops Group B after finishing second on the standings. El Sherbini has a chance to reclaim the World No.1 spot in Cairo if she can retain her title and Gohar fails to reach the title decider. To get that far, El Sherbini must navigate a group which includes World No.4 Joelle King, World No.6 Nour El Tayeb and World No.8 Georgina Kennedy.
Peru’s Diego Elias is seeded at No.1 in the men’s event and he will aim to become the first non-Egyptian since Gregory Gaultier in 2016 to win the World Tour Finals. There have been four different World No.1s in the men’s game this season and Elias is joined in Group A by the man he replaced at the summit of the rankings in April, Mostafa Asal.
Asal is hoping to become the first man since Peter Nicol in 2001 to win three World Tour Finals titles in a row. 2020 champion Marwan ElShorbagy and debutant Victor Crouin will also appear in Group A.
Group B will be headed up by current World No.1 Ali Farag, who has won his last four tournaments in succession. He is yet to win the World Tour Finals but did reach the title decider in 2018, when he lost to two-time winner Mohamed ElShorbagy.
ElShorbagy will feature alongside Farag in Group B and they will be joined by last year’s runner-up Paul Coll and World No.8 Mazen Hesham.