World No 1 Ali Farag and Raneem Al-Welili took the honours on an all-Egyptian finals night at the El-Gouna International as they beat Karim Abdel-Gawad and Nouran Gohar in their respective finals at the spectacular Abu Tig Marina in both men and women events. The week also saw the surprise retirement of another Egyptian squash great, Rami Ashour. Farag avenged his defeat to the former world champion in December's Black Ball Open by winning his maiden El-Gouna crown. Farag, who turned 27 this week, finished runner-up to compatriot Marwan Al-Shorbagi 12 months ago, but he built on a strong start to win 11-9, 12-10, 11-3, picking up his 17th PSA Tour title in the process. Abdel-Gawad had his opportunities, leading 9-7 in the first game and 6-2 in the second, but Farag came back both times to take a two-game lead. An ankle injury suffered by Abdel-Gawad in the second prevented him from really getting his teeth into the third, and Farag made no mistake to etch his name onto the trophy, his first title on home soil since February 2015. “It was really a shame what happened at the end of the second and in the third. I'm sure if he was better physically, it would have been a totally different story. I think he had an amazing week, he's playing well this season, and it's great to have him on tour,” Farag said after the match. “This season has been amazing for me. I couldn't have asked for a better one. I might have won a lot of big titles, like the World Championships and claiming that No 1 spot at the ToC, but this one is a very special one as I'm sharing it in front of my people,” he added. Meanwhile, Al-Welili successfully defended her El-Gouna International title after overcoming fellow Egyptian Gohar to lift her third successive PSA Tour trophy. Al-Welili beat world No 2 Nour Al-Sherbini in last year's final, and was up against the woman who ended Al-Sherbini's run in this tournament at the quarter-final stage. The 30-year-old took the opening game, despite being under immense pressure from her hard-hitting opponent. Gohar, nine years Al-Welili's junior, struck back in the second as Al-Welili went walkabout mentally and surrendered a 5-2 lead to lose nine of the next 11 points as Gohar levelled. The momentum then shifted in Al-Welili's favour as she came back to take the third 12-10 on the tie-break, and their battle continued into the fourth game where Gohar, sporting heavy strapping on her left knee, required an injury break after a lunge into the front corner to send Al-Welili 8-6 up. The world No 7 returned to court, but it was clear that she was having to protect the knee as she lacked the same explosivity in her movement, and Al-Welili closed out the win to earn the 22nd PSA Tour title of her career. “I think that the blood injury break turned me down a little bit, so I'm glad I managed to come back after being 6-2 down [in the third],” Al-Welili said afterwards. “It's definitely hard pushing yourself this way, but when you're in a final of such a great tournament, you do your best to stay in, and you do your best to win. That's what I was thinking at that point.” This is the second PSA Tour event in a row in which Farag and Al-Welili have taken silverware, and both players win $22,800 for their triumphs in El-Gouna. In other news, Egypt's three-time world champion Ashour has announced his immediate retirement from professional squash this week. Known on tour as ‘The Artist', Ashour, 31, is regarded as one of the most talented squash players ever and spent 21 months at world No 1 between 2010-2013. He won PSA World Championship titles in 2008, 2012 and 2014. The last of those saw Ashour return after a six-month injury absence to claim the sport's biggest title in stunning style, beating long-term rival Mohamed Al-Shorbagi in the final – a match which has gone down in history as one of the greatest squash matches of all time. Ashour also became the first Egyptian in 47 years to win the sport's oldest tournament – the British Open – in 2013, which came in the midst of a 49-match unbeaten run as he won nine successive PSA Tour titles. Since making his PSA debut in 2004, Ashour has lifted 40 PSA Tour titles, reaching 59 finals, while winning 358 of his 435 matches on the PSA Tour. Ashour's final tournament win came at the Grasshopper Cup in March 2018 as he tore through the draw without dropping a game, again beating Al-Shorbagi in the final. Ashour was also voted as the second greatest male player of all time behind Pakistan's Jahangir Khan in the summer of 2018. Despite his undoubted skills with a racket, Ashour has been ravaged by injury over the past decade and has suffered a range of hamstring and knee issues. The latter has kept him out of action since last May, with his final ever PSA appearance coming at the 2018 British Open. “I'm not the biggest fan of beginnings and endings,” said Ashour. “During my 25 years on the squash court, I won a combined eight World Championships (including senior, junior and team), and I never loved anything more than I have loved the game of squash. Squash has given me so much but also took a lot from me physically and mentally.”
