Egyptians Dessouky & Asal To Contest Canary Wharf Classic Climax

Egypt's Fares Dessouky and Mostafa Asal will contest the 2022 GillenMarkets Canary Wharf Classic final after claiming respective wins over Egypt's Mazen Hesham and Peru's Diego Elias at London's East Wintergarden.

Surprisingly, the two Egyptians have only faced each other once in their PSA careers before, when Dessouky took a 3/2 victory in the quarter finals of the 2021 El Gouna International. They will lock horns once more as they both look to claim a first Canary Wharf Classic crown.

Dessouky secured his place in his second Canary Wharf Classic final after defeating compatriot Hesham in a tough five-game battle - the semi-finals and final of the PSA World Tour Gold tournament reverting to the traditional best-of-five format.

World No.10 Dessouky got off to a subdued start as Hesham blitzed into a 6-3 lead, however, it wasn't long before the former clicked into gear and showcased his incredible finishing abilities to save two game balls and go on to take opening game, 12-10.

Hesham got himself back into contention though as he drew level before the games continued to exchange hands once again to take it to a fifth. In the decider, it was Dessouky that quickly settled into his rhythm and didn't give Hesham any time to recover as he executed the 12-10, 9-11, 11-3, 7-11, 11-4 victory in 72 minutes.

"It was a very tough match, Mazen is one of the most talented players on Tour," said Dessouky following his win. "He's always very tricky, we've grown up playing together and have been playing since we were about nine. When we were hitting a few days ago we were remembering these times. It was always going to be a tough match and today was no different. I hope he stays injury-free because he's one of the top guys for sure."

Meanwhile, Asal and Elias played out a hefty 127-minute battle in the other semi-final of the night in front of a full house in East Wintergarden.

A massive 39-minute first game went the way of Elias on the tie-break, who had to dig deep to close out 16-14. Due to the intensity of the match, in the second game the interaction with the referee began to creep more and more into the match but the quality remained high and this time it was Asal who was able to take the game.

The momentum continued to shift between the two players as the match wore on. Asal was beginning to break up Elias' rhythm with the severity of his hitting and stoppages throughout, which led to the Peruvian getting increasingly frustrated on court, but he managed to retake the lead courtesy of a 13-11 win in the third.

The 20-year-old Egyptian came back strongly though to get back on level terms before powering to the finishing line in the fifth to book his place in the final.

"First of all, it was an entertaining match," said Asal afterwards. "Me and Diego were playing some great squash, all credit to him. I used to watch him when I was a junior and watched him at the British juniors in Sheffield, and how he succeeded in the juniors was unreal.

"Fares and I are good friends, he's playing superb squash, I'm really happy that he's back he's amazing to watch, I think all the people watching Fares play think he's unreal and I wish myself a good match tomorrow."