Egypt\u2019s Nouran Gohar has reached a major PSA Squash Tour final just seven months after giving birth to her daughter after she ended the title defence of World No.2 Hania El Hammamy tonight in the longest women\u2019s match in the history of the US Open Squash Championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At 107 minutes in length, it was the joint 7th longest women\u2019s professional squash match in history \u2013 tied with their meeting at the 2023 El Gouna International \u2013 and it could have been even longer had El Hammamy not had to retire from the match through an ankle injury in the deciding game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until that point, the pair \u2013 whose epic rivalry also resulted in the longest women\u2019s match of all time totalling 130 minutes at the 2023 PSA Squash Tour Finals \u2013 had gone toe-to-toe in a dramatic match at Philadelphia\u2019s Arlen Specter US Squash Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was at 21-21 in a gripping tie-break that El Hammamy went over on her ankle when chasing down a ball into the front right hand corner. She came back on and was able to play through the pain barrier to take the third game and restore her lead, but the agony ultimately proved too much for her in the end as she retired injured in the fifth game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want to say how much I missed Hania on tour,\u201d said Gohar, whose last match before leaving the tour due to her pregnancy was against El Hammamy 14 months ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt will seem weird, but I really missed these matches and this fire. Her and Nour brought the best out of me in terms of squash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHopefully it isn\u2019t very serious and she will recover very soon. She is such a competitor and such a fighter. It means everything [to be in another final]. I went through such a tough time, not only with the pregnancy, but with my blood clot as well. I was wondering if I could ever come back to compete, so I couldn\u2019t have dreamt of being back in the final of a Platinum so soon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gohar will take on World No.1 Amina Orfi after she came back from two games down to defeat 2023 champion Nour ElSherbini in a repeat of May\u2019s PSA World Championships final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Orfi won 7-11, 10-12, 11-6, 11-5, 11-5 to make it 18 wins in a row. Orfi remains undefeated this season and has already won the London Classic, Qatar Classic and Egyptian Open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe is the worst person to be 2-0 down to in a semi-final,\u201d Orfi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI tried to stay in the game and hit my targets. In the beginning I wasn\u2019t playing well, so I told myself that today wasn\u2019t the best squash day and I had to keep the rallies going, retrieve every ball and put the pressure on her. The biggest strength today for me was my fighting spirit. It\u2019s a while since I came back from 2-0 down, and I\u2019m really proud of what I did today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the men\u2019s event, Peru\u2019s Diego Elias overcame World No.1 Mostafa Asal to reach the title decider of the Platinum event for the third time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elias had won 11 of 23 matches against Asal \u2013 the most recent triumph coming in the final of last month\u2019s CIB Egyptian Open final \u2013 and made it back-to-back wins over the Egyptian following an 11-9, 11-3, 11-3 victory. Elias has now reached a 51st PSA Squash Tour Final and will look to add to the US Open title he won in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe play good matches every time, he\u2019s been World No.1 in the world for a long time now and you can see how he beats everyone,\u201d said Elias afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt means a lot to be in another US Open final. I\u2019ve been playing lots of tournaments in the last couple of months, so I\u2019m happy to be back in another final and hopefully I can do well tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elias\u2019s opponent will be 2023 winner Paul Coll, who will appear in his third US Open final after completing a superb comeback against World No.12 Aly Abou Eleinen, winning 6-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-3 after 92 minutes of intense action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coll looked down and out after falling two games behind and then 8-5 down in the third, but his mental strength was unwavering as he battled back to take three unanswered games. Coll, who will appear in his 60th PSA final, is 12-9 down on his head-to-head record with Elias and lost to the Peruvian in the semi-finals of last month\u2019s CIB Egyptian Open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of belief in myself,\u201d said Coll afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI spoke to Ali Farag [former World No.1] last week and he gave me some great advice in terms of believing in myself and I carried that into this week. I started to get my game going in the second, then when I got that third I was pretty confident I could go all the way. It\u2019s great [to be in the final] but the job is far from done. I\u2019ll recover tonight and come back tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Men\u2019s Semi-Finals: <\/strong>[3] Diego Elias (PER) bt [1] Mostafa Asal (EGY) 3-0: 11-9, 11-3, 11-3 (41m); [2] Paul Coll (NZL) bt Aly Abou Eleinen (EGY) 3-2: 6-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-3 (92m)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women\u2019s Semi-Finals: <\/strong>[1] Amina Orfi (EGY) bt [3] Nour ElSherbini (EGY) 3-2: 7-11, 10-12, 11-6, 11-5, 11-5 (71m); [7] Nouran Gohar (EGY) bt [2] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) 3-2: 13-11, 4-11, 21-23, 11-5, 7-3 ret. (107m)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Egypt\u2019s Nouran Gohar has reached a major PSA Squash Tour final just seven months after giving birth to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,264],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-17547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-uncategorized-en","tag-squash"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t