ElShorbagy & Arnold Claim Historic Wins At China Open

England's Mohamed ElShorbagy won his 50th PSA Squash Tour title and Malaysia's Rachel Arnold won the biggest title of his career after victories over Egyptian duo Mohamed Abouelghar and Farida Mohamed in the 2024 China Open in Shanghai.

The PSA Squash Tour Silver event, which returned to the calendar after a five-year absence, took place at the spectacular Shanghai Oriental Sports Center, which boasted four all-glass show courts and featured 48 of the world's best squash players.

Ahead of the men's final, top seed ElShorbagy, whose last title came at the 2023 Black Ball Open in his native Egypt, had spoken openly about what a 50th title would mean, adding that 50 was his lucky number after spending 50 months at world No.1.

Despite going into the match with an unbeaten eight-match record against his unseeded opponent, world No.9 ElShorbagy will have been wary of the threat posed by Abouelghar after the world No.49 took out his younger brother Marwan ElShorbagy, the No.2 seed, in the quarter-final and No.3 seed Eain Yow Ng in the semi-final.

'The Beast,' who won the China Open the last time it was contested in 2019, made his intent clear early on, playing aggressively and keeping his opponent on the back foot as he moved into the lead with an 11-6 win in game one.

Game two was a more even contest, with both players having multiple game ball opportunities before Abouelghar eventually made the breakthrough 14-12 to restore parity.

In an at-times bad-tempered third game, ElShorbagy regained his lead with a convincing 11-7 win.

Abouelghar looked for all the world to have forced a fifth game when he went 9-3 up in game four.

Former world No.1 ElShorbagy, however, had other ideas and in a dramatic turnaround, the Englishman chipped away at Abouelghar's lead and scored eight consecutive points to win 11-9 and add another chapter to his impressive record book.

Elshorbagy becomes only the fourth man to win 50 Tour titles, overtaking Peter Nicol, whose distinguished career ended on 49 titles.

"This is my third title here and I've had much luck here," ElShorbagy said. "It's title number 50 for me and I'll never forget the match today. It's such a big win for me; I've been looking for it for a while now and I'm really proud to achieve title number 50 in my career.

"It's been an emotional week. I'd like to dedicate this title to my grandmother, who passed away a couple of months ago. Her birthday was two days ago and she would have been 95 years old and she always prayed for me and looked out for me and I really pushed hard today to dedicate this title to her. I know she's watching and is in a better place. This title is for her."

Arnold, meanwhile, completed a perfect week as the No.6 seed got the better of No.3 seed Mohamed to win a Silver-level title for the first time in her career.

The 28-year-old started the match with control and accuracy, moving Mohamed around well to take the opener 11-5.

The Egyptian improved in game two, but could not match Arnold, who doubled her advantage with an 11-8 win.

Despite the commanding lead, Arnold will have taken nothing for granted after watching Mohamed come back from two games and eight match balls down in her semi-final against Sivasangari Subramaniam, and she began the third game watchfully.

Both players were good value for 8-8 in game three as Arnold pushed for a historic victory and Mohamed bid to begin another epic comeback.

To the delight of a large portion of the crowd, it was the Malaysian who made the decisive contribution, holding her nerve to earn two championship balls at 10-8, which she converted at the first time of asking.

Afterwards, Arnold said: "I felt really confident today. Going in, I just thought about it as another match and not as a big final. It doesn't feel real at the moment but I'm really happy!"

"For everyone who's believed in me, thank you so much!"

For Arnold, attention turns to the Bronze-level ACE Malaysia Cup 2024, which is being contested in Kuala Lumpur from 12-17 November. For ElShorbagy, his next tournament is the Platinum-level Milwaukee Hong Kong Open, which will take place from 2-8 December.