Egypt’s Nour Al-Tayeb is back on the scene after giving birth to win the inaugural CIB Zed Squash Open, PSA World Tour Bronze event held in Cairo last week.
Al-Tayeb also broke into the top 10 rankings, jumping from 11th to eighth place.
It was Al-Tayeb’s first Professional Squash Association title since October 2020 and the 12th of her career. The 29-year-old is married to world No 1 Ali Farag, also of Egypt, and gave birth to a baby girl in July last year. Cheered on by her husband, Al-Tayeb beat world No 9 Salma Hani by an 11-7, 12-14, 11-6, 11-4 scoreline in 74 minutes.
“I feel great. It’s one of the happiest titles I’ve won,” Al-Tayeb told the press after the match. “I took a year’s break, so I wanted to do well coming back. I’m very happy with how I played.”
In the men’s final, Egypt’s Youssef Suleiman captured the biggest PSA title of his career after beating No 2 seed Victor Crouin 11-8, 11-5, 11-6.
It was Suleiman’s ninth PSA title. The win put him at No 12, a jump of five places in the rankings.
Suleiman won the title without dropping a game after powering past Rui Soares, Mustafa Al-Sirti and Raphael Kandra.
“To win my biggest title in Egypt, in front of a home crowd, my friends and family, it means a lot,” Suleiman said.
The next stop on the PSA World Tour will be the Qatar Classic which takes place in Doha from 4-10 September, then the South Western Women’s Open in Houston from 6-11 September.
Earlier, the PSA announced that rankings will be announced on a weekly basis instead of monthly.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 1 September, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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