Mohamed Elshorbagy Wins British Grand Prix Crown

Egypt's world No.1 Mohamed Elshorbagy dethroned England's Nick Matthew over four games in the final of the 2015 AJ Bell British Squash Grand Prix to take the title in front of a partisan English crowd and collect his 15th PSA World Tour title - in what was his 100th tournament on Tour.

Backing up from an intense 95-minute semi-final encounter against France's world No.3 Gregory Gaultier, the 24-year-old from Alexandria showed no signs of fatigue as he blasted out of the blocks in the opening game to impose his pace on the Matthew and take the opening game 11-7.

The wily 35-year-old veteran fought back in the second, mixing up his pace and variation to try and upset Elshorbagy's rhythm, but he couldn't convert and fell two games behind after a tense tie-break.

Elshorbagy, who now resides in Bristol, England, continued to force the pace in the third but in a back-and-forth game it was Matthew who managed to squeeze it and keep his hopes of completing a hat-trick of successive British Grand Prix victories alive. But it proved to be as good as it got for the Sheffield man, as Elshorbagy pounced in the fourth game to secure the title 11-7, 12-10, 9-11, 11-6 in 65-minutes.

"Last year at this event it didn't go well for me, losing in the quarter-finals, so it's great to come back here this year and get my first title of the season," said Elshorbagy.

"It was a challenge to back-up from yesterday's big battle against Greg but those challenges are what I live for. I came out fighting for each point and I'm glad it turned out to be a great match and a great battle between us.

"I expect we're going to have a lot more battles to come this season but I know I'll be coming back next year to defend my title for sure."

After his defeat Matthew said: "Obviously as a competitor you want to win but being in the final was more than I expected this week.

"So I've got to be over the moon with where I've got to. The pace in the first game took me by surprise but I'll be a better player both mentally and physically for the rest of the season because of it."