World Champions El Sherbini and Farag top Allam British Open Draws
World Champions Nour El Sherbini and Ali Farag will headline the draws for the 2021 Allam British Open, PSA World Tour Platinum tournament when they line up at Hull’s Allam Sport Centre between August 16-22.
Both players will be making their first tournament appearances since taking the honours at the PSA World Championships presented by the Walter Family last week in Chicago, and El Sherbini will kickstart her attempts to win a third British Open crown.
The 25-year-old won a fifth World Championship trophy last week against World No.2 Nouran Gohar and is seeded to contest the Allam British Open final against the same opponent.
El Sherbini received a bye into the second round where she will play either USA’s Olivia Fiechter or Egypt’s Menna Hamed. From there, the Egyptian is predicted to play India’s Joshna Chinappa and compatriot Salma Hany, before a potential semi-final meeting with 2019 runner-up Camille Serme.
Gohar, the defending Allam British Open champion, will get under way against either Egypt’s Zeina Mickawy in the last 32, with the likes of Wales’ Tesni Evans, England No.1 Sarah-Jane Perry and World No.5 Hania El Hammamy standing between Gohar and a place in a third British Open final.
Farag, meanwhile, collected his second World Championship trophy last week in the Windy City and beat the man who will overtake him as the new World No.1 on August 1 – Mohamed ElShorbagy.
Farag did lose out to ElShorbagy when they met in the 2019 Allam British Open final, and the pair are seeded to meet in the title decider once again. Farag will begin against England’s three-time runner-up James Willstrop in round two, before a matchup against World No.12 Mohamed Abouelghar in round three.
CIB PSA World Tour Finals winner Mostafa Asal is then a likely opponent in the quarter-finals, with the winner of that match predicted to take on World No.5 Marwan ElShorbagy in the last four.
ElShorbagy will get his fifth spell at World No.1 under way against the men’s British No.1 Joel Makin in what will be their fourth meeting in their last five tournaments. Mexico’s Cesar Salazar could await ElShorbagy in round three, ahead of predicted fixtures against Fares Dessouky and Paul Coll in the last eight and last four, respectively.
The wildcard spots in the men’s event go to World No.175 Sam Todd and World No.140 Nick Wall, who will play fellow Englishman Declan James and Daryl Selby, respectively. In the women’s draw, World No.105 Georgina Kennedy and World No.363 Katie Malliff have been handed the wildcard spots. Kennedy will play Malaysia’s Sivasangari Subramaniam, while Malliff will play Egypt’s Farida Mohamed.
Action from the Allam Sport Centre will be shown live on SQUASHTV and the official Facebook page of the PSA World Tour (excluding Europe and Japan). The semi-finals and finals will also be shown live on the channels of contracted broadcast partners.
