Egyptian Mohamed Al-Shorbagy won the 2016 El-Gouna International Squash Open.
In the final match, Al-Shorbagy defeated France’s Gregory Gaultier in what was an unexpected comeback, as Al-Shorbagy had lost the match’s first two games, 7-11 and 9-11.
After the match, Al-Shorbagy told reporters that he did not think he would be able to come back after falling behind. However, he found a new source of encouragement after speaking with his mother at the conclusion of the second game.
Al-Shorbagy won the next three games—11-3, 11-9 and 11-8—to win the match three games to two.
On the same day, Nour El-Sherbiny won the 2016 Women’s World Open Squash Championship held in Malaysia, defeating England’s Laura Massaro, the top-seeded player in the competition.
El-Sherbiny’s final match was similar to El-Shorbagy’s, as she lost the first two games to Massaro, 6-11 and 4-11.
However, El-Sherbiny staged a comeback, winning the following three games—11-3, 11-5 and 11-8— to the match, 3-2.
With the victory, El-Sherbiny overtook Massaro’s in the Professional Squash Association’s international ranking, and became the world’s number one female squash player, leaving Massaro as world’s number two.
