Momen Upsets Elias In Shock World Tour Finals Opener

World No.8 Tarek Momen scored the biggest upset on the opening day of action at the 2023-24 Xbox PSA World Tour Finals when he beat World Champion Diego Elias at the Boys and Girls Club Hidden Valley Field House in Bellevue, USA, to move to second in Group B of the men's event.

The Xbox PSA World Tour Finals features the top eight male and female players on the PSA World Tour Finals Leaderboard, with points for the standings on offer at all PSA World Tour events throughout the 2023-24 season. The group stage uses a round robin, best-of-three games format as players bid to qualify for the knockout stages.

Momen recently celebrated the birth of his second child, but the disrupted preparation for the tournament didn't seem to have a huge impact on the 36-year-old as he put in a dominant performance to win 11-7, 11-4. Momen sits level on four points with New Zealand's Paul Coll in Group B and they will both qualify for the semi-finals if they both beat Mazen Hesham and Elias, respectively, in the second Pool round.

"He's a quality player and getting a good win against him is something that I have to give myself credit for," said Momen.

"I know this court is dead and I knew it would suit me. We've been playing in hot conditions all year long, so I'm happy to play when it's a bit chilly. I wanted to reset and refocus after the British Open, my head was all over the place.

"My baby has arrived safely and I'm not worried about anything, I'm just trying to enjoy the last event of the season."

World No.1 Ali Farag - who is yet to win the PSA World Tour Finals - currently tops Group A on four points after beating 2018-19 winner Karim Abdel Gawad 2/0. Reigning men's champion Mostafa Asal is in second after a win over two-time winner Mohamed ElShorbagy by the same scoreline. Asal is behind Farag due to Farag having a higher percentage of points won during his match.

Defending champion Nouran Gohar kickstarted her attempts to win a third PSA World Tour Finals crown as she overcame England's Georgina Kennedy by an 11-7, 11-10 margin. Gohar tops Group B ahead of the woman she beat in last season's World Tour Finals title decider, Hania El Hammamy.

A 2/0 win for Gohar over El Hammamy on Day Two will see her qualify for the last four.

"Gina played pretty well today, she was moving well and covering the front of the court," Gohar said afterwards.

"It was a good match to start with. At the World Tour Finals you don't have easy matches at the beginning, we played in the semi-finals of a Platinum a few weeks ago and it's quite tough to get a good start.

"There are some tweaks here and there that I need to improve on, but overall I think I managed it pretty well on the day."

World No.1 Nour El Sherbini sits atop Group A, level on points with US No.1 Olivia Weaver. They beat Belgian sisters Nele and Tinne Gilis, respectively.