El Shorbagy wins finals in Dubai
Mohamed El Shorbagy won the prestigious World Series Finals tournament in Dubai for the first time in his career. During the same weekend, Nour El Sherbini made her way to the finals.
The current word number 3 captured his 25th career title in Dubai. After more than an hour of play, he defeated James Willestrop in straight sets 12-10, 11-9, 11-8.
The Alexandria native had never won this title before. It is also his first win on tour after a slight drought since November. Speaking of his dream victory, he said: “It’s a very emotional win. I lost some confidence in myself during the season but I feel like I bounced back this week. I don’t want to lose. I hate losing. This season I didn’t play with my spirit, but I’m really proud I got that back this week. It was my best squash since being World No.1.”
In the women’s draw, Nour El Sherbini became finalist of this prestigious contest. The Egyptian lost to the English player Laura Massaro 11-8, 12-10, 11-5.
Despite a defeat, it was a great performance for the World number one who fell in the previous round last year. “I don’t think that there is a better ending to the season than being in the final of the World Series Finals” the two-time World Champion said. “It’s been a long week for me and a tough one. I didn’t expect to get this far, but I’m really happy to be in the final. All of the matches were very tough, very close and I didn’t know what was going to happen. I would have loved to have reached the finals last year but I lost in the semi-finals, so I didn’t know how I would do this year.”
Mohamed El Shorbagy and Nour El Sherbini both play with Tecnifibre’s Carboflex 125 S racket and DNAMX strings.
