DOHA – Ramy Ashour won one of the greatest World Open squash finals yesterday when he saved a match point to triumph in five games against Egyptian compatriot Mohamed El Shorbagy.
Shorbagy, who had just become world No.1 for the first time, proved a hero himself, saving five match points in a row from 5-10 down in the final game.
In the end, however, Ashour’s brilliant creativity prevailed by the narrowest margins over El Shorbagy’s power and strength, earning him his third world title.
Ashour won 13-11 7-11 5-11 11-5 14-12.
The final took place amid squash’s reignited hopes of a place in the Olympic Games.
An extraordinary session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at Monte Carlo next month looks likely to approve a change in entry regulations which would greatly improve squash’s chances of becoming part of the Games program at Tokyo in 2020.
The change involves capping the number of athletes instead of the number of sports, and it makes World Squash Federation (WSF) officials believe a door has been opened for their sport whose footprint is light and whose presentation last year was well received by the IOC.
“The WSF hopes that squash will be in, and I believe that we deserve to be in,” Mohamed El Menshawy, a WSF Vice President from Egypt, told an enraptured crowd in Doha.
