Women’s world No 1 Nouran Gohar and men’s world No 2 Mustafa Asal, both from Egypt, have been named the Squash Tour World Events Players of the Month for December.

The Professional Squash Association (PSA) announced on its website that the Egyptian duo had been named as the players of the month of December.

The Egyptian superstars claimed the respective titles at the Platinum-level Hong Kong Squash Open, defeating rivals Nour Al-Sherbini and Ali Farag, both of whom are also Egyptians, in the finals to claim the last pieces of silverware of the 2024 calendar year.

Gohar, who returned to world No 1 with victory in Hong Kong, won a combined vote between the two polls on the PSA Squash Tour’s Instagram page and website, pipping Al-Sherbini to the award, as well as the other two nominees, world No 3 Hania Al-Hammami and world No 4 Olivia Weaver.

The 27-year-old’s Hong Kong Open success, in which she claimed wins over Lucy Turmel, Joelle King, Sana Ibrahim, Al-Hammami and Al-Sherbini, was her third title of the season and her seventh of the 2024 calendar year.

Meanwhile, Asal capped off a superb first half of the season on the PSA Squash Tour by dropping just one game on his way to the Hong Kong Open title – that singular blemish coming during his four-game victory over world No 1 Farag in the final.

Asal’s route to the title was littered with tricky opponents, with ‘The Raging Bull’ also powering his way past the likes of Tarek Momen and Joel Makin in the latter stages of the tournament.

The world No 2 edged out Farag in the combined poll on the PSA Squash Tour’s Instagram page and website, with Diego Elias and Joel Makin claiming the third and fourth spots, respectively.

Attentions for both Gohar and Asal will now turn to the Platinum-level J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions which will take place between 23-30 January.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 9 January, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly