The Egyptian duo of Amina Orfi and Mustafa Asal have been crowned the 2026 CIB Palm Hills PSA World Champions after claiming respective wins over their fellow compatriots Nour Al-Sherbini and Youssef Ibrahim in the final held at Golf Central Palm Hills in Giza, Egypt.
Orfi broke a few records as she denied Al-Sherbini what would have been a record-breaking ninth PSA World Championships title. At the age of 18 years and 10 months, Orfi became the youngest women’s World Champion in history after overcoming Al-Sherbini by a 6-11, 11-6, 11-9, 7-11, 14-12 scoreline following 106 minutes of nail-biting action during which she overturned two championship balls.
“It is the longest women’s World Championship match in history under the point-a-rally, first to 11 scoring format and the eighth longest professional women’s squash match of all time,” the Professional Squash Association (PSA) website wrote. “Orfi, who eclipsed Al-Sherbini herself as the youngest woman to win the World Championships, also becomes the first woman to hold both the World Squash Junior Championship and PSA World Championship titles at the same time,” the PSA added.
The win also saw Orfi back up a 103-minute semi-final victory over world No 1 Egyptian Hania Al-Hammami while it was her first major PSA trophy.
“I’m speechless. I worked so hard to get here. This will add so much to my confidence. I had so many tough losses this season. Up until this tournament, I was satisfied with what I had done, but I knew I could do better.
“I knew there was going to be pressure on both Al-Hammami and Al-Sherbini, Hania being world No 1 and Nour being a title away from breaking the record. I knew I had the least pressure and I went for it. I’m just so happy,” Orfi said after clinching her 12th PSA title.
On the other hand, Asal retained his title after an impressive 3-0 victory over No 7 seed Youssef Ibrahim, winning 11-4, 11-1, 12-10.
Ibrahim was appearing in his first World Championship final after fighting past No 2 seed Paul Coll and No 4 seed Karim Abdel-Gawad in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, despite his impending shoulder surgery next week.
As reported by World Squash: “The match against Asal was a step too far for the 27-year-old who was unable to live with the pace and accuracy of the world No 1. Asal now has two World Championship titles to his name, while it is the 29th PSA Squash Tour title of his career.”
Later, champion Asal said that “it felt amazing to win the World Championships in front of your family and friends,” adding, “credit to Youssef Ibrahim. To even be playing here with his shoulder injury, he’s superhuman. He’s a good friend of mine and we grew up together.”
“It’s so hard. I got edgy in the third game, the pressure was on for sure. It’s never easy playing in Egypt to defend a world title. There’s so much pressure playing in front of everyone here.”
* A version of this article appears in print in the 21 May, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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