Elias Marks Motor City Milestone

Diego Elias capped his 350th PSA World Tour match in perfect style as he defeated Mazen Hesham to become the first man to win a hat-trick of Sturbridge Capital Motor City Open titles.

Coming into the final of the PSA World Tour Silver event, the Peruvian world No.4, a Motor City Open champion in 2020 and 2022, had made no secret of how at home he feels at the Birmingham Athletic Club in Bloomfield Hills, Detroit, USA.

The No.2 seed made a cautious start to game one and was content to play low-risk squash, letting Hesham attack as the Peruvian inched to a 5-3 lead. However, after settling, Elias played brilliant tight squash to limit Hesham's famed attacking skills and take a run of six points to claim the first game 11-3.

The second followed a similar pattern, with Elias happy to contain Hesham before pressing on, moving 2/0 up thanks in no small part to fantastically accurate work in the front corners.

In an exciting third game, the crowd witnessed some of the very best of Mazen Hesham, with the increasingly confident looking Egyptian opening up the contest with an impressive 11-6 win.

No doubt wary of Hesham's 3/2 victory after having been two games down to Tarek Momen in November's Malaysian Open final, Elias started at a furious pace in the fourth game.

The Peruvian looked razor sharp as he took the first four points and never once let up, storming to a hat-trick of titles with another dominant 11-3 victory.

Afterwards, Elias said: "It feels great. I love being here, I love this court and the people here. They make it really amazing and make it feel like home. I'm really happy with my performance this week.

"After [winning the Tournament of Champions] I knew it was going to be really tough playing this week and I'm very proud of myself.

"Mazen played really well in the third game and I knew the start of the fourth was going to be very important and I'm just happy I got the lead at the start and then I was more relaxed."

Hesham added: "I want thank everyone who came out today. I think I did well this week; I had a tough tournament last week. I'm pleased with my performance and want to congratulate Diego, he's a good friend on and off court."

For both Elias and Hesham, attention turns immediately to their next event, the Silver-level Pittsburgh Open, which takes place 8-12 February at the Rivers Club and will be streamed live on PSA channels.