Egypt’s Ibrahim Elkabbani has taken the title of the University of Birmingham Open, winning on the spectacular glass court housed inside Birmingham’s New Street Station, to guarantee themselves a spot of the 2021-2022 PSA World Championships in Cairo.
Elkabbani presented a comprehensive performance to get the better of England’s Miles Jenkins, as he won in straight games on the glass at New Street Station.
The Egyptian had overcome Hungary’s Balazs Farkas, a man already qualified for the PSA World Championships thanks to his victory in Odense last month. Jenkins started the stronger of the two in the opening exchanges, but Elkabbani was able to punish loose balls from the Englishman to take both of the first two games by an 11-7 scoreline. He then ran riot at the start of the third game, taking a massive lead early on, one he never looked like relinquishing as he won in straight games.
The last of the four qualifying events for the 2021-2022 PSA World Championships in Cairo will be the Challenger 10 level Bermuda Open, which will take place from 3-7 May at the Bermuda Squash Rackets Association.
Meanwhile, Egyptian women also dominated the world squash. The PSA announced the world rankings for April, with Wadi Degla’s Nouran Gohar topping the list with a total of 21,190 points.
Gohar regained the leadership of the world squash rankings after winning 4 PSA platinum tournaments in a row this season, bringing the total number of tournaments she won to 16 local and international titles out of total 27 finals that the player reached in 97 tournaments she played throughout her professional career. Gohar achieved 221 victories, out of a total of 307 matches, with a winning rate of 72%.
Gohar achieved many records during her squash career, the most important of which was qualifying for the final of 9 PSA Platinum Championships in a row. This year, Gohar won 4 major local and international tournaments, namely the Windy City Open, the Black Bowl, and the Republic Open Championship. She also qualified for the final of the Allam Squash Championship in England.
In the same context, three of Wadi Degla players maintained their spots in the top-10 ranking, including Nouran Gohar (1st), Hania Al-Hamami (3rd), and Rawan Al-Arabi (8th).
Wadi Degla club have effectively contributed to the development of the squash sport in Egypt by establishing the largest number of squash courts in the world, amounting to 82 courts within 9 different branches.
