International Squash Magazine – April 2020

WINDY CITY OPEN
ALIFARAG&NOURELSHERBINI
CROWNEDWINDYCITYCHAMPIONS
Egyptian duo Ali Farag and Nour El Sherbini were crowned
champions of the 2020 the 2020 Windy City Open presented by
the Walter Family after they achieved victories over Paul Coll
and Raneem El Welily, respectively, in the University Club of
Chicago’s stunning Cathedral Hall.
Farag completed an astonishing comeback from
two games down against Coll as he captured his
first Windy City Open title courtesy of a 12-14
9-11 11-7 11-6 11-1 victory which sees him extend
his winning streak over Coll to 12 matches. The
win also made it back-to-back titles in Chicago
after winning the 2018-19 PSA Men’s World
Championship in the city last season.
Coll had ended a five-match losing streak to
World No.1 Mohamed ElShorbagy and a threematch
winless run against former World No.1
Karim Abdel Gawad enroute to the final, and
shot out of the starting blocks to take a onegame
lead, while he held firm to take the second
after initially squandering a 7-3 advantage.
But Farag’s resurgence in that second game
looked to drain Coll’s energy and confidence,
and the Kiwi never looked quite the same player
over the course of the next three games as
Farag absorbed everything his opponent threw
at him and slowly took control of the encounter.
For Farag, it’s a first PSA World Tour title
since the U.S. Open back in October 2019 and
represents his first title win following the death
of his nephew shortly after the 2019-20 PSA
Men’s World Championship in November.
“I was telling Nour [wife, El Tayeb] after the
second that I still had it in me to win the last
three games,” said Farag after claiming his 19th
career PSA title.
“I could have been the one that was 2-0 up but
all credit to Paul, after beating Mohamed and
Karim and I was out of it after the second. I
tried to hang in there and at least if I didn’t win
it then I had put some work into his legs. It has
been a great week for myself and I could not
be prouder”.
El Sherbini matched Farag in both making it
successive title wins in Chicago after a thrilling
five game victory as she followed up her
title win at the 2018-19 PSA Women’s World
Championship with victory over compatriot El
Welily.
El Sherbini was a losing finalist to El Welily in
the 2016 and 2017 finals but got her revenge
over the three-time winner in a week which saw
her brave both illness and a persistent knee
injury to win this tournament for the first time.
08 | April 2020 INTERNATIONALSQUASHMAGAZINE
www.isportgroup.com/InternationalSquashMagazine