World No.4 Paul Coll pulled off his second thrilling five-game victory in as many days as he overcame England No.1 Mohamed ElShorbagy on an epic night of semi-finals action at the Optasia Championships 2025.
Coll, who defeated ElShorbagy’s younger brother Marwan in five games just 24 hours beforehand, had to deliver some of his gutsiest squash to survive a brilliant ElShorbagy performance and fight back from 2-0 down to complete the finals line-up at the Gold-level event.
Coll will join World No.1-hunting Mostafa Asal, World No.3 Hania El Hammamy and British No.1 Georgina Kennedy in the respective finals at the Wimbledon Club.
The opening two games of play between Coll and ElShorbagy saw the latter burst out of the blocks with some scintillating attacking squash, pushing up on the ’T’ line and putting Coll under severe amounts of pressure all across the court.
However, after powering into a two-game advantage, ElShorbagy required a physio break for a back injury, with Coll capitalising on this period of troubled movement to take a one-sided third game and reduce the deficit.
Despite a battling ElShorbagy still not being back to his physical best in the fourth game, ‘The Beast’ managed to go toe-to-toe with Coll in a thrilling finale. The England No.1 reeled off seven straight points in the mid stages of the fourth game to sit on the cusp of victory, but Coll refused to give in, pulling off a double dive when 9-8 down to keep himself in the contest.
After clinching the subsequent fourth-game tie-break, the pair remained inseparable, with ElShorbagy narrowly edging ahead at 8-7 up in the decider. However, from there it was No.2 seed Coll who managed to grab the momentum at just the right time, taking four straight points to take victory after 81 minutes of enthralling play.
After the match, Coll said: “It was a match that I had to work my way into. It probably wasn’t my smoothest match, but I think at the back end of the second, I really found something that was missing in those last two days.
“When I get in the zone and I need to get every ball back, the dives just come out. I’m proud of my fight today and like I said I felt I played well in the last three games, but when Mohamed gets a sniff he can just be so hard to play against.”
Coll will take on the World No.2 Mostafa Asal in the title decider, after the top seed staged an impressive comeback against World No.5 Joel Makin, charging back from 2-0 behind to seal victory.
Asal, who can move to World No.1 in the rankings if he takes the Gold-level title this week, had to display impressive mental resolve to upturn a tactically brilliant Makin start before moving through to a 7-11, 4-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-2 win.
Meanwhile, in the women’s event, England No.1 Georgina Kennedy advanced to her maiden Gold-level final on the PSA Squash Tour after overcoming No.4 seed Nada Abbas in four games.
Kennedy delivered an impressive attacking performance to overcome the Egyptian by an 11-5, 11-13, 11-5, 11-2 scoreline and keep her quest for a first title of the season alive.
The British National Champion had highlighted in her quarter-final post-match interview about her attempts to add an attacking edge to her game, and this work was evident throughout her 49 minutes on court. The 27-year-old hit frequently and accurately into the front two corners, with her variety from the mid-court troubling the movement of Abbas.
“It feels amazing,” Kennedy said after the match. “I’ve never been in the final of a Gold-level event before. This is new territory for me. I’ve got my two best friends in the world here, so it makes such a difference. I thought it was actually such a good match. I was 10-7 up in the second, and then it was easy for me to start panicking.
“But Miles [Jenkins] was really good with me in the game break. He told me I was playing really good squash and that I just needed to stick with the game plan. I’m really happy right now.”
Kennedy will face World No.3 Hania El Hammamy in the title decider, after the Egyptian overcame defending champion Satomi Watanabe in four games.
The top seed was forced to deliver a high-quality performance to hold off a resurgent Watanabe in the latter stages of the match, eventually moving through to an 11-5, 11-8, 11-13, 11-6 win over the Japanese No.1.
Central to El Hammamy’s victory was her ability to retrieve the deceptive attacks of Watanabe on the all-glass court, with the 24-year-old forcing her opponent to narrow her margins at the front – a tactic which resulted in unforced errors from Watanabe’s racket at critical moments of the match.
Men’s Semi-Finals
[1] Mostafa Asal (EGY) 3-2 [3] Joel Makin (WAL) 7-11, 4-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-2 (81m)
[2] Paul Coll (NZL) 3-2 [4] Mohamed Elshorbagy (ENG) 9-11, 9-11, 11-3, 12-10, 11-8 (82m)
Women’s Semi-Finals
[1] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) 3-1 [3] Satomi Watanabe (JPN) 11-5, 11-8, 11-13, 11-6 (61m)
[2] Georgina Kennedy (ENG) 3-1 [4] Nada Abbas (EGY) 11-5, 11-13, 11-5, 11-2 (49m)
