Asal Into British Open Final After Ending Home Interest in Birmingham

Defending champion Mostafa Asal is through to the GillenMarkets British Open final after the world No.1 and newly-crowned World Champion launched an epic 78-minute comeback to take down British No.1 Joel Makin and end home interest in the PSA Squash Tour Diamond event at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

Asal will take on Peruvian world No.2 Diego Elias in the final after the No.2 seed defeated fellow former world No.1 Paul Coll of New Zealand in straight games. The women's final will be contested by Egypt's world No.1 and defending champion Nouran Gohar and her compatriot and reigning World Champion Nour El Sherbini, with Gohar defeating 17-year-old world No.5 Amina Orfi and El Sherbini beating USA's world No.4 Olivia Weaver.

Three months ago, Asal and Makin engaged in an epic five-game battle in the Optasia Championships, with Asal eventually coming back from two games down to defeat the Welshman.

The Rep match followed a similar pattern. Makin, who has called Birmingham home for the last 12 years, lived up to his promise to make his match against the world No.1 a physical encounter, contesting every inch of space with the Egyptian, with match referee Jason Foster having to issue a number of conduct warnings for excessive physicality as the players crashed into each other to the roars of the sell-out crowd.

To the crowd's disappointment, Makin could not capitalise on a strong start, with Asal weathering the early storm before settling into the game to record a 4-11, 13-11, 11-8, 11-7 win.

Afterwards, Asal said: "Joel is amazing with the way he plays. To become world No.4 and to challenge us is unbelievable. It was tough today, credit to Jason Foster who controlled it very well. I'm not saying that to get him on my side, he was controlling it today!"

Asal's opponent will be old rival Elias, with the Peruvian taking down his old training partner Coll in a dominant 11-6, 11-9, 11-5 win.

"I'm very happy with my performance today," Elias said. "Paul and I have been playing each other for so many years, we came up the rankings together and the head-to-head was 8-8 before this so it's always tough."

In the women's event, the tantalising prospect of a 40th PSA meeting between Gohar and El Sherbini beckons after the world's top two players blew away their competition.

Gohar, up against rising star Amina Orfi, delivered a near-perfect performance, combining her relentless pressure with some excellent attacking work to dispatch the world No.5 11-6, 11-8, 11-2 in just 37 minutes.

Afterwards, Gohar said: "Amina is one of the best youngest players to have played the game and she's in the top five.

"Any player in the top five you would be scared of or focused on before the match, but it makes it extra dangerous when they're young as they have no fear and don't really care!"

El Sherbini, meanwhile, came through an entertaining clash with US No.1 Weaver.

Going into the match, El Sherbini enjoyed a brutal record over the American world No.4, winning all 13 of the matches the pair had contested on Tour and the two finals they'd played at the World Squash Team Championships, though Weaver pushed El Sherbini to the brink in their last meeting at this year's PSA World Championships.

This time, though, was a more simple affair for El Sherbini, with the world No.2 forcing herself in front of Weaver time and again as she recorded an 11-9, 11-8, 5-11, 11-3 win.

"You try to push yourself to win every match and the younger generation are very fearless and hungry. Being the oldest, you have to be as hungry as they are," El Sherbini said.