World #1 Farag Headlines Optasia Championships Draw
World N#1 Ali Farag will headline the draw for the Optasia Championships, which take place at the Wimbledon Club in London from Sun 6th an Fri 11th March.
Formerly known as the Channel VAS Championships, the Optasia Championships is a PSA World Tour Gold event, which offers up $109,000 in total player prize compensation. This year sees the event relocate from the St George’s Hill Lawn Tennis Club, where it had been held since 2015.
Farag, a two-time runner-up in both 2017 and 2018, has been seeded first for the event, which boasts a top-class draw featuring six of the world’s top 10 players, including three former and current World Champions, with Farag joined by Mohamed ElShorbagy and Karim Abdel Gawad in the draw.
The 29-year-old has won three PSA titles already this season and receives a bye into the second round, where he will face either fellow Egyptian Mohamed ElSherbini or USA’s Shahjahan Khan.
Farag is seeded to meet No.4 seed Marwan ElShorbagy in the last four, while Marwan’s older brother – World No.3 Mohamed – is seeded second for the event. Mohamed won the Channel VAS Championships in 2017 – beating Farag in the final – and the former World No.1 will look to win his first PSA event since May, 2021.
ElShorbagy has a tricky path to the final, which includes 2019 champion Gawad and Peruvian World No.6 Diego Elias.
England’s Joe Lee has been named as the wildcard for the event. The 32-year-old will take on Frenchman Baptiste Masotti in the opening round and the winner of that clash will go up against Elias in the last 16.
The Optasia Championships will be shown live on SQUASHTV.
