World Tour Finals: World No.1 Gohar and world champion El Sherbini in same group
By SEAN REUTHE – Squash Mad Correspondent
Women’s World No.1 Nouran Gohar and World Champion Nour El Sherbini will lock horns in Group A of the 2019-20 CIB PSA World Tour Finals as they do battle for the prestigious title at Cairo’s Mall of Arabia between September 28 – October 3.
The PSA World Tour Finals features the best squash players on the planet, with players needing to secure either a top eight finish on the CIB Road to Egypt Standings or win a PSA Platinum tournament to earn their place at one of the most unique tournaments on the PSA World Tour.
A $370,000 prize fund will be split equally across both the women’s and men’s events as players compete in a best-of-three games group stage between September 28 – October 1. The top two from each group qualify for the knockout semi-finals, where a place in the best-of-five games title decider will await the winner of those fixtures.
Gohar will take to the court as the World No.1 for the first time following her ascent to that coveted spot during the COVID-19 enforced suspension of the PSA World Tour. She will line up against El Sherbini – who finished top of the Road to Egypt Standings – England’s Sarah-Jane Perry and New Zealand’s Joelle King.
King finished outside the top eight on the Road to Egypt Standings, but qualifies after defending champion Raneem El Welily, who finished second, retired from the sport in the summer.
Group B is made up of last year’s runner-up Camille Serme, World No.4 Nour El Tayeb, PSA World Tour Finals debutant Hania El Hammamy and World No.7 Amanda Sobhy.
Meanwhile, World Championship finalists Tarek Momen and Paul Coll will go head-to-head in Group B of the men’s event. Momen, who overcame Coll to get his hands on the biggest prize in men’s squash last November in Qatar, heads up the group and the pair are joined by World No.7 Marwan ElShorbagy and Welshman Joel Makin, who makes his first appearance at the PSA World Tour Finals.
World No.2 Ali Farag heads up Group A in the men’s event and will be joined by defending champion Karim Abdel Gawad and Peru’s Diego Elias. Germany’s Simon Rösner, who qualifies after Road to Egypt Standings leader Mohamed ElShorbagy chose not to play due to personal reasons, takes the other spot in that group.
Group stage action will begin on Monday September 28 at 18:00 (GMT+2). Six matches will be played per night for the first four days of the event until the group stage has drawn to a close.
Group stage matches will take place at 18:00, 18:45, 19:30, 20:15, 21:00 and 21:45 between September 28 – October 1. The semi-finals will be held at 18:30 on Friday October 2.
The finals will begin at 19:00 on Saturday October 3.
Every match from the tournament will be shown live on SQUASHTV (rest of world), Eurosport Player (Europe only), ON Sport (Egypt)​ the official Facebook page of the PSA World Tour (excluding Europe and Japan) and multiple mainstream broadcast channels around the world.
2019-20 CIB PSA World Tour Finals – Group Draw.
Men’s Group A
1) Ali Farag (EGY)
4) Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY)
6) Diego Elias
8) Simon Rösner (GER)
Men’s Group B
2) Tarek Momen (EGY)
3) Paul Coll (NZL)
5) Marwan ElShorbagy (EGY)
7) Joel Makin (WAL)
Women’s Group A
1) Nour El Sherbini (EGY)
3) Nouran Gohar (EGY)
6) Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG)
8) Joelle King (NZL)
Women’s Group B
2) Nour El Tayeb (EGY)
4) Camille Serme (FRA)
5) Hania El Hammamy (EGY)
7) Amanda Sobhy (USA)
Pictures and graphics courtesy of PSAÂ