ElShorbagy Brothers Set for Repeat World Showdown
13 May 2024
English brothers Mohamed ElShorbagy and Marwan ElShorbagy both won their second round matches at the CIB PSA World Championships to set up a mouthwatering sibling showdown in the last 16 round in Cairo, Egypt.
The match will be a repeat of the 2017 World title-decider, with Mohamed prevailing in the sport's first World Championship final to see two brothers go head-to-head. Mohamed progressed this time after his round two match with India's Ramit Tandon at the Palm Hills Club was cut short due to a calf injury.
Meanwhile, Marwan put in an assured performance to beat world No.17 Fares Dessouky in straight games. It will be their 23rd meeting on the PSA Tour, with Mohamed winning 16 of their previous matches to Marwan's six. The pair have both switched allegiance from Egypt to England in recent years.
"I'm looking forward to it, Mo is one of the greats and he's my big brother," said Marwan, who at 30 is three years Mohamed's junior.
"We've played so many times on the PSA World Tour and this is the third time we've played in the World Championships. I'm looking forward to it, I'm sure he is as well, and hopefully we can give everyone around the world a big match.
"We're more mature now and more relaxed. We look back at what we've achieved and our matches and we want to enjoy it. We spoke about the possibility of playing and we said we would kill each other and then we'll be brothers after. I'm looking forward to it and maybe I'll have dinner with him and my mother today."
In the women's event, world No.2 Nouran Gohar continued her title challenge but had to dig in to beat fellow Egyptian Hana Moataz by a 3/1 scoreline.
Gohar has reached the final of the last three World Championships - coming unstuck against world No.1 Nour El Sherbini every time - and found herself pegged back by world No.31 Moataz after taking the first game.
The 26-year-old regrouped though and closed out an 11-4, 9-11, 11-6, 11-2 win to set up a last 16 clash with USA's No.12 seed Sabrina Sobhy.
"Hana has been in pretty good form recently and beating players above her," said Gohar.
"I knew it was going to be tough out there and I'm glad I've had a match like this to make me sharper for the rest of the tournament. I was very happy with the way I came back after the second and executed my plan. There's some stuff to get better at but overall I'm happy with my performance today.
"We [Gohar's coaching team] didn't talk much about the score as this can happen, and every tournament I've played I've lost one or two games like this and it's all about how to finish the game in a good way. I just need to keep taking the momentum into the next matches and I know I can better at that."