Orfi and Coll claim British Open titles in Birmingham
Amina Orfi and Paul Coll lifted the Quilter Cheviot British Open 2026 titles with victories over Nour ElSherbini and Mostafa Asal at the Rep Theatre in Birmingham.
World Champion Orfi etched her name into the history books once again after becoming the youngest women’s British Open champion following her 3-1 triumph against ElSherbini.
The 18-year-old, who became the youngest women’s World Champion a couple of weeks ago where she defeated ElSherbini, overcame the World #2 again to break a 94-year record by becoming the youngest women’s champion of the British Open. The record was previously held by Susan Noel, who was 19 years and eight months old when she lifted the British Open title in 1932.
Orfi – who contested the longest women’s match in British Open history yesterday – the joint fourth longest women’s match of all time -came from a game down to defeat ElSherbini 7-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-8 for a record-breaking win at the Diamond-level event, also ensuring she will become the World #2 in the next PSA rankings.
“I feel very happy with these two results back-to-back after the World Champs, and I was very tired and it was a great match there,” she said. “Coming here today, I saw Nour throughout the tournament and she was looking very sharp and getting through the earlier rounds easily.
‘I knew I had to be in it from the beginning and I didn’t like the start that I had, but I told myself this is the same thing that happened at World Champs and I knew I could come back.
“She hit some errors and that gave me an extra boost as today I wasn’t feeling that well, and obviously my ankle was hurting and it was weird to move weirdly and incorrectly – but I am just happy it paid off how it did.”
Meanwhile in the men’s event Coll secured his third British Open title after beating World #1 Asal 3-1.
Coll, who won back-to-back British Open crowns in 2021 and 2022, battled back from a game down to make it a hat-trick of successes at this event. Asal, who came through a monumental 115-minute epic with Diego Elias, edged the opener 11-9, but the marathon semi-final yesterday with the Peruvian looked to have taken a huge physical toll on the World #1.
After Coll had taken the second and third games with some ease, the reigning World Champion conceded the match at the beginning of the fourth, confirming victory for Coll – his third British Open title and his 33rd on the PSA Squash Tour.
“It’s been an amazing week,” he said. “Mostafa had a brutal one yesterday, but I still had to get him today, make him hurt, pick up as much as possible and I’m very happy with that performance. I put in a lot of work since the World Champs to flip the script, very happy with my mentality and squash this week.
“The confidence was always there – it was just about execution. Since the Aussie Open I was focused on World Champs and I got hyper focused on one thing. In training I’ve been hitting the ball really well and the things I’ve been working on have been really good.”
Preview :
The women’s final is a repeat of last month’s epic World Championship final which saw Amina Orfi triumph over Nour ElSherbini 14-12 in the fifth. That brought the overall tally to 3-3, will it be a fifth BO title for Sherbini or a first for Orfi ?
The men’s final will see either Mostafa Asal or Paul Coll add to their British Open title tallies. Asal has won their last three meetings in straight games and leads 16-7 overall, Coll has two BO titles – won before the move to Birmingham – to Asal’s one.
