Gohar Reaches US Open Final Just Seven Months After Giving Birth

Egypt's Nouran Gohar reached a major PSA Squash Tour final just seven months after giving birth to her daughter when she ended the title defence of world No.2 Hania El Hammamy at the US Open Squash Championships powered by Comcast Business in the longest women's match in the event's history.

At 107 minutes in length, it was the joint 7th longest women's professional squash match in history - tied with their meeting at the 2023 El Gouna International - and it could have been even longer had El Hammamy not had to retire from the match through an ankle injury in the deciding game.

Until that point, the pair - whose epic rivalry also resulted in the longest women's match of all time totalling 130 minutes at the 2023 PSA Squash Tour Finals - had gone toe-to-toe in a dramatic match at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia.

It was at 21-21 in a gripping tie-break that El Hammamy went over on her ankle when chasing down a ball into the front right hand corner. She came back on and was able to play through the pain barrier to take the third game and restore her lead, but the agony ultimately proved too much for her in the end as she retired injured in the fifth game.

"I want to say how much I missed Hania on tour," said Gohar, whose last match before leaving the tour due to her pregnancy was against El Hammamy 14 months ago.

"It will seem weird, but I really missed these matches and this fire. Her and Nour brought the best out of me in terms of squash.

"Hopefully it isn't very serious and she will recover very soon. She is such a competitor and such a fighter. It means everything [to be in another final]. I went through such a tough time, not only with the pregnancy, but with my blood clot as well. I was wondering if I could ever come back to compete, so I couldn't have dreamt of being back in the final of a Platinum so soon."

Gohar will take on compatriot Amina Orfi after the world No.1 came back from two games down to defeat 2023 champion Nour ElSherbini in a repeat of May's PSA World Championships final.

Orfi won 7-11, 10-12, 11-6, 11-5, 11-5 to make it 18 wins in a row. Orfi remains undefeated this season and has already won the London Classic, Qatar Classic and Egyptian Open.

"She is the worst person to be 2/0 down to in a semi-final," Orfi said.

"I tried to stay in the game and hit my targets. In the beginning I wasn't playing well, so I told myself that today wasn't the best squash day and I had to keep the rallies going, retrieve every ball and put the pressure on her. The biggest strength today for me was my fighting spirit. It's a while since I came back from 2/0 down, and I'm really proud of what I did today."

In the men's event, Peru's Diego Elias shocked world No.1 Mostafa Asal to reach the final of the Platinum event for the third time.

Elias had won 11 of 23 matches against Asal - the most recent triumph coming in the final of last month's CIB Egyptian Open final - and made it back-to-back wins over the Egyptian following an 11-9, 11-3, 11-3 victory. Elias has now reached a 51st PSA Squash Tour Final and will look to add to the US Open title he won in 2022.

"We play good matches every time, he's been world No.1 in the world for a long time now and you can see how he beats everyone," said Elias afterwards.

"It means a lot to be in another US Open final. I've been playing lots of tournaments in the last couple of months, so I'm happy to be back in another final and hopefully I can do well tomorrow."

Elias's opponent will be 2023 winner Paul Coll, who will appear in his third US Open final after completing a superb comeback against world No.12 Aly Abou Eleinen, winning 6-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-3 after 92 minutes of intense action.

Coll looked down and out after falling two games behind and then 8-5 down in the third, but his mental strength was unwavering as he battled back to take three unanswered games. Coll, who will appear in his 60th PSA final, is 12-9 down on his head-to-head record with Elias and lost to the Peruvian in the semi-finals of last month's CIB Egyptian Open.

"There's a lot of belief in myself," said Coll afterwards.

"I spoke to Ali Farag [former world No.1] last week and he gave me some great advice in terms of believing in myself and I carried that into this week. I started to get my game going in the second, then when I got that third I was pretty confident I could go all the way. It's great [to be in the final] but the job is far from done. I'll recover tonight and come back tomorrow."