Farag & Asal Claim Hard-Fought Wins To Set Up World No.1 Showdown In El Gouna

Another all-Egyptian finals day has been confirmed in the last Platinum event of the 2024/25 PSA Squash Tour season as Ali Farag, Mostafa Asal, Nouran Gohar and Amina Orfi all claimed hard-fought wins on day five of the 2025 El Gouna International Open.

The El Gouna crowd were treated to over six hours of spellbinding squash as eight players looked to reach the finals. Farag and Asal took the spoils in the men's draw to set up a World No.1 showdown whilst defending champion Nouran Gohar will take on 17-year-old Amina Orfi in what will be the teenager's first ever major event final.

Gohar was the first to book her spot in the title decider after she recovered from 2/1 down to defeat world No.3 Hania El Hammamy in the latest chapter of their legendary rivalry. El Hammamy played some excellent squash to take a 2/1 lead over the World Champion but things soon started to heat up in the business end of the match.

There was nothing to separate the two in the fourth game as both started to play well at the same time for the first time in the contest. The rallies were long and intense with neither wanting to open the court up too much in fear of the other's quality. Gohar held two game balls to force a decider but a deft crosscourt drop from El Hammamy followed by a Gohar error forced a tiebreak. A stroke decision went the way of the No.3 seed to set up a match ball. An inch perfect kill by Gohar followed by a No Let and another winner ensured a fifth and final game was coming up.

Again, nothing separated the two in the opening stages of the deciding game. It was El Hammamy who managed to score the first two-point lead at 7-5. Gohar bounced back to win the next five points and set herself up with three match balls. A quality width was just out of reach of the El Hammamy volley and as the ball hit the floor, Gohar hit the roof. She erupted with emotion as she reached her sixth El Gouna final in a row.

Gohar's final opponent Orfi needed just three games to defeat USA's Olivia Weaver, avenging her recent loss to the world No.4 in the Australian Open final.

Weaver showed her quality in the opening two games and led 8-6 in both. World No.5 Orfi powered back to snatch them out of Weaver's hands to earn a crucial 2/0 lead. The Egyptian teenager then flew out the traps in the third game, sending out a message that she was on her way to her first ever Platinum final. The teenager reached 8-2, but with the finishing line in sight, Orfi started to freeze. Weaver battled back from 4-10 down to 8-10 with four match balls being squandered by the youngster. She eventually sealed the match with a trademark clinical kill on the backhand side to take her place in a first ever Platinum final.

"I can't believe it," said Orfi.

"Yesterday, I had a really tough match and coming into this I knew Olivia was still fresh, she only played like 20 minutes in her last round. I just had to keep going and not give her a chance in the beginning. It was crucial that I went 2/0 up because in Australia, she went 2/1 up and she is so good from in front. So that was important today.

"I started feeling it in my legs from yesterday's match. I wanted to keep going and move the ball into the back and try to force errors and thankfully they came.

"We've both had tough matches [her and Gohar], the last three times she's beaten me, so I'm just going to watch those matches back and see if I can do better."

Three-time El Gouna International champion, Ali Farag, was next to book a spot in the final after he was forced out of his comfort zone to defeat a spirited Joel Makin, who left everything on the court.

Both players shared the opening games with the rallies increasing in pace and quality. Farag's web-weaving was starting to take full effect and Makin was feeling it. After losing the third game, the Welshman came to a grinding halt after saving Farag's first match ball, but the end came soon after as Farag won 11-8 in the fourth game to win 3/1.

"I don't feel great, I like to keep my emotions a lot more bottled up than I showed today," said Farag after his win.

"But that's because of the intensity and accuracy that Joel presented to me today. He is always very intense but I don't think he was this accurate last season, that's why he is knocking on the door of the top four.

"I shouldn't have been as rattled as I was. It came out at the ref, at myself so I'm sorry for that. Squash wise, I was fine but emotionally, some work to do."

World No.1 Asal will be Farag's opponent in the final with not only silverware on the line as the victor will top the rankings on Monday 21st April. Asal defeated another former world No.1 in the form of Paul Coll to take his place in the final. The match started in quite scrappy fashion with both players not wanting to surrender an inch around the middle.

Asal was the one who seemed to deal with the interruptions with the referee better and after losing the opening game, stormed through the next three games winning 11-4, 11-5, 11-6 in 73 minutes to reach his seventh final of the season.