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.

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

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.

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.