ElShorbagy Conquers Cardenas To Claim Canadian Open Crown

World No.8 Mohamed ElShorbagy claimed the 51st PSA Squash Tour title of his career after powering past Mexican No.1 Leonel Cardenas in the final of the AirSprint Private Aviation Canadian Open in Calgary.

ElShorbagy, the top seed at the Bronze event, completed a faultless week of squash by overcoming the world No.16 by an 11-5, 11-5, 11-7 scoreline in Bow Valley Square.

The dominant 36-minute victory saw former World Champion ElShorbagy lift the second Tour title of the season - but record his first-ever success on Canadian soil. The match also marked the 750th of his PSA career - and his 80th final.

The routes of the two players coming into the final couldn't have been more contrasting, with ElShorbagy spending 121 minutes less on court than Cardenas, and the Mexican arriving on the back of his 105-minute marathon semi-final with Victor Crouin.

And ElShorbagy took full advantage of this physical advantage throughout the three-game win, getting off to a flying start in the first and never letting Cardenas get a foothold in the match. ElShorbagy took seven of the opening eight points of the match and within a flash had taken a one-game advantage after just seven minutes of play.

No.4 seed Cardenas attempted to add more duration into the rallies in the subsequent second and third games - a tactic that had previously served him well throughout the week - but ElShorbagy ultimately proved too strong.

The Englishman continued to jump up on the T whenever possible, with his accuracy into the front two corners extremely impressive. The 34-year-old moved through to match ball after 33 minutes of play, and despite Cardenas clawing back three unanswered points, sealed the title with a backhand crosscourt winner.

"I was really happy with the level of my focus this week," ElShorbagy said after the match.

"Obviously I arrived this week on paper as quite a heavy favourite, but that doesn't mean anything. I have shown sometimes in the past that I would lose focus in some of these matches, drop games, and get myself into trouble. That was something that I really wanted to focus on this week.

"Losing last week in Houston fired me up even more and from the first point to the last point of the whole event I was really on point."

The next stop on the PSA Squash Tour is the Silver-level New Zealand Open, which takes place between 4-9 March. The event will be shown live on SQUASHTV.