Seven Up in El
Gouna
The El Gouna
International Squash Open returns to Egypt's Red Sea resort
for a Seventh Edition this April, featuring Men's and Women's
PSA World Series events offering equal prize money of
$165,000 each.

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03-Apr, Draws Released
Shernini and Welily set
for El Gouna repeat
World
#1 Nour El Sherbini and World Champion Raneem El
Welily are seeded to meet in the final of the first ever
Women’s El Gouna International.
The duo contested the final of the women’s PSA World
Championships at this venue 12 months ago, with Sherbini
prevailing on the banks of Egypt’s Red Sea to claim a second
World Championship title.
This year’s tournament features a women’s World Series
tournament alongside the men’s event for the first time in
history, with a total prize fund of $330,000 split equally
between both draws.
El Sherbini and El Welily are joined in a top-class draw that
also features the likes of Windy City Open champion Nour El
Tayeb, in-form New Zealander Joelle King, former
World #1 Laura Massaro and eight-time World Champion
Nicol David.
Meanwhile, there is a return to action for former World #4
Omneya Abdel Kawy, who makes her first appearance since
January last year after taking time off the tour due the birth
of her son, Selim, in September. The 32-year-old will play Hong
Kong’s World No.22 Joey Chan in round one and could come
up against Massaro in the second round.
The wildcard entry goes to World Junior Champion Rowan
Elaraby, who faces India's Joshna Chinappa in the first
round.
World
#1 Mohamed ElShorbagy heads up the men’s draw opposite
number two seed and defending champion Gregory Gaultier,
who faces Egyptian maverick Mazen Hesham in the opening
round, while ElShorbagy will line up against a qualifier.
ElShorbagy is set to meet younger brother Marwan in the
semi-finals as he looks to improve on last year’s quarter-final
finish, where he lost out to Marwan in what was only the younger
ElShorbagy’s second win over his older sibling.
World #2 Ali Farag is seeded to meet Gaultier in the
other semi-final, with the 25-year-old Harvard-graduate playing
Switzerland’s Nicolas Mueller in round one.
Last year’s runner-up Karim Abdel Gawad also features and
he plays Hong Kong’s Leo Au in the opening round of
action.

FULL MEN'S & WOMEN'S DRAWS

Round One
Highlights - some great matches in store in the opening round |
MEN'S
ENTRY LIST
The
world's best are heading for El Gouna once more, with defending
champion Gregory Gaultier seeded to meet World Champion
and World #1 Mohamed ElShorbagy in the 2018 Final.
Neither will have an easy path to the final though, with 7 of
the world's top 8 and 23 players from the top 34 already in the
main draw.
The
next four in the seedings are all Egyptian - Ali Farag,
Marwan Elshorbagy, Karim Abdel Gawad and Tarek
Momen, with Simon Rosner and Mohamed Abouelghar
rounding off the eight seeds.
Other
home players in the draw are Omar Mosaad, Zahed
Mohamed, Mazen Hesham and wildcard Mostafa Asal.
Qualifying takes place on 18th/19th April at the
El Gouna Squash Complex, and the main draw runs from 20th
to 27th April at the complex and on the Glass Court at
the Abu Tig Marina. |
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WOMEN'S
ENTRY LIST
The
world's best are heading for El Gouna once more, with defending
champion Nour El Sherbini seeded to meet World Champion
Raneem El Welily in a repeat of their two 2017 World
Championship finals, the first of which Sherbini won here in
El Gouna with El Welily taking the honours laters in the year in
Manchester.
All the
world's top 16 are in the draw, including the returning Omneya
Abdel Kawy at a pegged ranking of #14.
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