Top Seeds Farag & Coll To Contest Canary Wharf Climax

Egypt's Ali Farag and New Zealander Paul Coll, ranked one and three respectively in the world, will go head-to-head in the final of the Canary Wharf Classic after claiming straight games wins over Egypt's Tarek Momen and Peru's Diego Elias in the semi-finals of the PSA World Tour Gold event at East Wintergarden in London.

The two players will face each other for the third time in a final this year with each player taking one victory apiece so far in 2021 as they do battle for the established title.

Farag is aiming to go one better this year after falling short in a thrilling final to compatriot Mohamed Elshorbagy last year as he dismantled former World Champion Momen in straight games.

The world No.1 came from 10-7 down in the first to hold his nerve and take the lead on the tie-break, with the semi-finals and final reverting to the traditional best-of-five format. From that moment on it was all about the top seed as he produced a comfortable and clinical display to win 12-10, 11-2, 11-4 in 33 minutes.

"I had a clear game plan in mind, but it's not easy to implement it against Tarek," said Farag. "It was a matter of who got their game plan going first. In the first we traded blows a little and it went my way which calmed me down, so it was easier for me to implement my game plan. In the second and third, I don't think I've ever done it to that level against Tarek before.

"I've made semis here and the final, so I hope the trend continues. I hope I can go one further this time. It's a joy to play on this amazing stage, in front of this amazing crowd."

Coll, meanwhile, got his revenge on Elias as they played out a repeat of last month's Qatar Classic final when the world No.5 won his maiden Platinum title. However, this time it was a different result as the New Zealander was at his clinical best to convert.

Kiwi Coll - who won the tournament back in 2019 - started strongly and dealt with everything that Elias threw at him as he triumphed 11-9, 11-6, 11-3 in 50 minutes.

"I always feel confident going into a tournament after having a good training block," said Coll afterwards. "I knew it would be tough tonight, Diego beat me three weeks ago, so credit to him for backing up and having another good tournament, it's always so hard to do that.

"Ali and I have had some good battles in finals this year, another one tomorrow. I've got a lots of support from best friends and my coach here. I'm just in a good place this week, the crowd's amazing."