Egypt’s Elshorbagy wins First in British Squash Open Title

World number one Mohamed Elshorbagy won the British Open for the first time in his career after defeating Gregory Gaultier of France 3-2 on Sunday.

“It’s amazing for me to win such a prestigious event, especially in front of Jahangir Khan,” Elshorbagy told squashsite.com

“I was talking on the phone to my coach Jonah Barrington, who won the event 6 times, and I told him, only 5 more and I’ll equal your record.

“This season, my goal was to reach the World number 1 status, win the World Champs and the British Open.

“Two out of three, that’s not too bad. But you can imagine how hard I’m going to work this summer and win the three next season,” he added

The Egyptian player came from behind to claim a thrilling 3-2 (11-9, 6-11, 5-11, 11-8 and 11-5) win over the defending champion in 93 minutes.

Despite winning the first set, the World Champion lost two successive sets before making a great comeback during the last two sets to win the title.

“Greg played so well today, in particular in the 2nd and 3rd game, he was killing me, I didn’t know what to do, I just told myself to keep fighting until the last point, and I started to hit the ball harder and harder,” Elshorbagy said.

“I want to congratulate not only Greg but also all the French team, they have done fantastically this week, last year as well, they seem to always do well in this tournament.”

It was El-Shorbagy’s fourth win against the Frenchman in 13 games as Gaultier won 9 games against the Egyptian player.

Fellow Egyptian Ramy Ashour, who missed this edition due to injury, won the British open in 2013.

Source: Ahram Online