Gohar & El Sherbini Set Up Heavyweight Black Ball Final Showdown

Nour El Sherbini and Nouran Gohar, the world's top two women squash players, put in stellar performances to set up the ultimate CIB Black Ball Open final in Cairo.

World No.2 Gohar, who will replace El Sherbini as world No.1 in next month's rankings, reached her first ever Black Ball Open final after coming from behind to beat New Zealand's Joelle King 3/1.

King deservedly took the first game 11-5 - the first Gohar had dropped in 2022 - on the back of intelligent tactical play. The Kiwi mitigated Gohar's brutal power by outhitting the Egyptian, forcing the world No.2 to play an unfamiliar game of lobs as she attempted to slow King down.

Gohar, though, roared back furiously in the second, going back on the attack and pulverising any loose King shots on the volley to level the match one-all with an 11-8 win.

In a frenetic third game, both players had an opportunity to take a crucial 2/1 lead.

After Gohar was unable to convert a game ball at 10-9, King then squandered a golden opportunity when, despite being well placed on court and 11-10 up, she erroneously called a double bounce on Gohar and ended the rally prematurely.

The No.6 seed was made to pay for this error, as although she was able to reach another game ball at 12-11, she couldn't convert, and Gohar took the game 14-12 to take a crucial lead.

After the battle of the third game, Gohar looked the more confident player in the fourth, and she secured passage to her sixth consecutive Platinum final with an 11-5 win.

Afterwards, Gohar paid tribute to the vocal fans who have cheered her on throughout the tournament: "It's one of those matches where you're tested and you need to prove that you deserve to be at the top. Without this crowd, I wouldn't be able to do it.

"I'm not saying cliches or anything, but if I was playing this tournament anywhere else, not in Egypt and without my family and friends, I wouldn't have been able to win this one, for sure.

"I live three minutes away from here, but I wouldn't say I performed my best here. But I love the club [and] I love training here. I can't really complain about this year, it's started really well and I hope it is the same for the rest of the year."

Gohar also spoke of her respect for her King: "Joelle was playing really well during the event and I wasn't really surprised. I knew she was going to fight for everything and she was really up for it."

In the other semi, top seed Nour El Sherbini faced eighth seed Rowan Elaraby in the second Tour meeting with her younger compatriot this month. The world No.1 took 33 minutes to see off Elaraby 11-6, 16-14, 11-4.