El Sherbini and Gohar battle for No 1 spot as Qatar Classic begins

The PSA World Tour continues this weekend with the QTerminals Qatar Classic beginning at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha. Today, the competition commences with the women’s first round and action continues until the men’s final on September 16.
In the women’s, once again, there is the possibility of the World No 1 spot changing hands. Nour El Sherbini reclaimed the No 1 spot as she defeated fellow Egyptian Nouran Gohar in the final of the opening Platinum event of the new season – the Paris Squash 2023 – last Saturday. The points are extremely tight between the two as we head into the second major event of the PSA World Tour season. El Sherbini currently has an average of 2,182.778 whilst Gohar is less than 2 points behind her at 2,181.111.
For Gohar to reclaim the No 1 spot she must win the event or reach the final, while El Sherbini goes out in the semi-finals or earlier. For El Sherbini to stay as No 1 she must match or better Gohar’s results.
El Sherbini finished as runner-up in the 2015 Qatar Classic, falling to England’s Laura Massaro in the final. The 27-year-old will face the winner of Alexandra Fuller and Zeina Zein in round two. From there, she is predicted to play Rowan Elaraby, Nele Gilis and Joelle King en route to the final as she aims to win the first Qatar Classic title for eight years.
Gohar reached the quarter-finals the last time the Qatar Classic had a women’s draw, also being knocked out by Massaro. The Egyptian will have a chance to claim her first title of the season as she starts her campaign against either Ineta Mackevica or Emily Whitlock in round two. American duo Olivia Fiechter and Amanda Sobhy are also in Gohar’s path to the final, while she is seeded to play No 3 Hania El Hammamy in the last four.
After a disappointing round three exit to USA’s Sabrina Sobhy in Paris, El Hammamy will be determined to bounce back in Doha. The 22-year-old is aiming to add to her 11 career titles to date and gets under way against either Hana Ramadan or Georgia Adderley on the glass court in round two. No 10 seed Olivia Clyne is likely to await her in the last 16 before potential matches against England’s Georgina Kennedy and Gohar.
No 4 Joelle King comes into the Qatar Classic having reached the quarter-finals. King has won 16 titles over her career and should she reach the quarter-finals, it will be the 500th PSA match of her career.
King is set to play the winner between Kenzy Ayman and Jasmine Hutton in the second round and could play the dangerous Belgian Tinne Gilis in the last 16. A mouthwatering quarter-final with Nour El Tayeb could then act as a precursor to a semi-final battle with El Sherbini.
USA No 1 Sobhy made a positive start to the new season with a semi-final in Paris. Her win over New Zealand’s King saw her achieve a better position than her No 7 seeding would have indicated, but the next task for the American is to start getting more consistent wins on the board against the Egyptian top three women – with her title challenge in Paris unravelling at the hands of Gohar. A second round match against either Zeina Mickawy or Salma Eltayeb awaits Sobhy and she is again seeded to play Gohar in the last eight.
In the men’s, World No 1 Ali Farag will start as favourite after he secured his first tournament win of the season at the Paris Squash event. Farag beat Peruvian Diego Elias in the final to claim silverware in the first Platinum event of the new campaign. The Egyptian has a good track record in Doha, having won the competition twice before in 2018 and 2020.
The 31-year-old suffered a surprise third round defeat to Colombia’s Miguel Rodriguez last year here but will be favourite to take the title this time around. He must navigate a tricky draw which contains fellow Egyptians Mohamed Abouelghar, Fares Dessouky and Tarek Momen, who is playing on the same court where he won the 2019-20 PSA World Championships. If he can make it past Momen, a semi-final clash with No 5 Paul Coll could await.
Peruvian Elias returns to the scene of his first major tournament win and is in decent form having reached the Paris Squash final. While he took the first game of the title decider against Farag, he eventually went down in four games.
The No 2 has good memories of Doha having captured his maiden Platinum title with a win over New Zealand’s Paul Coll in 2021 and gets under way against either Auguste Dussourd or Qatari wildcard Syed Azlan Amjad in his first match of the tournament. Matches against Youssef Soliman and Marwan ElShorbagy could follow before a mouthwatering clash with No 3 seed Mohamed ElShorbagy in the last four.
Meanwhile, Abdulla Mohamed al-Tamimi will lead Qatar’s challenge. He had a strong competition in last year’s Qatar Classic, beating Coll in a 94-minute thriller. The local star then continued his impressive run with a win over Englishman George Parker in the third round, becoming the first Qatari player to reach the quarter-finals of a Platinum event. His run eventually came to an end against eventual finalist Crouin. Al-Tamimi is set to start the tournament in round one against Lucas Serme on the glass court and is seeded to reach the third round, where he will take on former world champion Momen.