Reigning World Champion Nour ElSherbini and former World Champion Diego Elias have been given the top billing at the Texas Open squash championships from 12-16 February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ElSherbini will be competing in Texas for only the third time in her career, first appearing in the Texas Open in 2014, where she came all the way from qualifying to win the entire event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The eight-time World Champion ended the year in great style winning the Hong Kong Open and will be looking to continue that form into the new year as she hunts her first Gold event win since January 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
USA No.1 Olivia Weaver is the No.2 seed for the event. The World No.5 reached her first Platinum event final to end 2025, beaten by ElSherbini in the title decider. Although difficult to take, that run to the final would have given Weaver huge confidence heading into 2026 and more major finals will certainly be the goal for the Philadelphia resident. She sits at the bottom of the draw ready to take on either Kenzy Ayman or Nour Heikal in round two. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The No.3 and 4 seeds for the women’s event are England’s Georgina Kennedy and Egypt’s Salma Hany. Kennedy reached the final of the Canadian Open earlier this season, her first final since April 2024. She’ll want to recreate that form and take advantage of the No.3 seeding positon she holds in this event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hany, however, has struggled with a few niggling injuries so far this season but will be hopeful that the new year brings improved fortune for her as she targets a spot back inside the world’s top 10.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ‘Peruvian Puma’ Diego Elias has been sidelined since the Egyptian Open final so far this season. The reigning British Open champion has been recovering from a knee issue but is set to return in the new year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elias has lost ground to both Mostafa Asal and Paul Coll in the rankings and will be determiend to rejoin the race for World No.1. His skill and squash intelligence will always stand him in good stead and if his body is recovered, he is rightly the heavy favourite to claim his first Texas Open title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Houston favourite Karim Gawad occupies the No.2 seeding position. The 2016 World Champion holds Houston Squash Club close to his heart and is always determinted to produce his best squash in this event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He’s been in terrific form so far this season and rightfully sits at No.4 in the world rankings, just one place behind top seed Elias. He’s already claimed a Gold event win on US soil this season, at the Silicon Valley Open, a repeat of that success will obviously be the goal of the Egyptian as he heads to Houston once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The No.3 and 4 seeds pose serious threats to the top two seeds as Youssef Ibrahim and Marwan Elshorbagy look to upset the title challengers. Ibrahim has found a consistency to his game this season that he’s been desperate to find since he burst onto the scene. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
His attacking flair partnered with a new accurate structure has seen him reach three finals in a row, including a second Platinum final. He sits in the same half as Gawad whilst the always dangerous Elshorbagy is seeded to face Elias in the semi-finals if the pair both progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Men’s draw<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [1] Diego Elias (PER) Bye Women’s draw<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [1]\u00a0Nour ElSherbini (EGY) Bye [9\/16] Kenzy Ayman (EGY) v Nour Heikal (EGY) Reigning World Champion Nour ElSherbini and former World Champion Diego Elias have been given the top billing at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-7475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-squash"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Diego-Elias_compressed-scaled.jpg",2560,1784,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Diego-Elias_compressed-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Diego-Elias_compressed-300x209.jpg",300,209,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Diego-Elias_compressed-768x535.jpg",640,446,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Diego-Elias_compressed-1024x714.jpg",640,446,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Diego-Elias_compressed-1536x1070.jpg",1536,1070,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Diego-Elias_compressed-2048x1427.jpg",2048,1427,true],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Diego-Elias_compressed-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Diego-Elias_compressed-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Diego-Elias_compressed-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7477,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7475\/revisions\/7477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Yannick Wilhelmi (SUI) v [9\/16] Timothy Brownell (USA)
[9\/16] Sebastien Bonmalais (FRA) v Muhammad Ashab Irfan (PAK)
[5] Victor Crouin (FRA) Bye
[7] Youssef Soliman (EGY) Bye
[WC] Muhammad Huzaifa Ibrahim (PAK) v [9\/16] Dimitri Steinmann (SUI)
[9\/16] Gregoire Marche (FRA) v Sam Todd (ENG)
[4] Marwan ElShorbagy (ENG) Bye
[3] Youssef Ibrahim (EGY) Bye
Nathan Lake (ENG) v [9\/16] Eain Yow Ng (MAS)
[9\/16] Bernat Jaume (ESP) v Moustafa Elsirty (EGY)
[8] Aly Abou Eleinen (EGY) Bye
[6] Mohamed ElShorbagy (ENG) Bye
Ramit Tandon (IND) v [9\/16] Noor Zaman (PAK)
[9\/16] Kareem El Torkey (EGY) v Nick Wall (ENG)
[2] Karim Gawad (EGY) Bye<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Qualifier v [9\/16]\u00a0Mariam Metwally (EGY)
[9\/16]\u00a0Zeina Mickawy (EGY) v Nicole Bunyan (CAN)
[8]\u00a0Georgia Adderley (SCO) Bye
[7]\u00a0Marina Stefanoni (USA) Bye
Tsz-Wing Tong (HKG) v [9\/16]\u00a0Hana Ramadan (EGY)
[9\/16]\u00a0Ka Yi Lee (HKG) v Nour Aboulmakarim (EGY)
[4]\u00a0Salma Hany (EGY) Bye
[3]\u00a0Georgina Kennedy (ENG) Bye
Nadine Shahin (EGY) v [9\/16]\u00a0Grace Gear (ENG)
[9\/16]\u00a0Lucy Beecroft (ENG) v Torrie Malik (ENG)
[6]\u00a0Farida Mohamed (EGY) Bye
[5]\u00a0Nada Abbas (EGY) Bye
[WC]\u00a0Zeina Zein (EGY) v [9\/16]\u00a0Lucy Turmel (ENG)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[2]\u00a0Olivia Weaver (USA) Bye<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"