World No.1 Hania El Hammamy has won the PSA Squash Tour Finals presented by TWG Global for the second time after overcoming Malaysia’s Sivasangari Subramaniam in a highly-entertaining clash at Centquatre-Paris tonight.
El Hammamy, who also won this tournament in 2020, battled to an 11-6, 10-11, 11-8, 11-8 victory to lift the 22nd PSA Squash Tour title of her career and her seventh of the season.
It was a dream start for the 25-year-old from Egypt, who was incredibly clinical in the opening game, but Sivasangari found her range in the second as she drew level courtesy of winning the sudden death tie-break.
The quality of squash on show was incredibly high and the third game was the most entertaining of the lot as El Hammamy pulled off some acrobatic dives to keep herself in the rallies amidst severe pressure by Sivasangari.
A few errors from the Malaysian handed the momentum to El Hammamy, who made no mistake in restoring her advantage.
El Hammamy came racing out of the traps in the fourth to take an 8-3 lead, and she quelled a late fightback from her opponent to seal the 15th major trophy of her career.
“When I won in 2020, it was during COVID and I beat Nour El Tayeb from 2-0 down, it was such a big win for me,” said El Hammamy.
“I was the underdog then and now I’m being challenged for the World No.1 spot, so it’s a different story. I’m really proud.
“Now I’m going to start my off season and not think about squash at all, that’s what I need. I’ll be going to the North Coast, Europe, having a lot of food and going to a lot of parties. I’ll have a month off, I need that and when I had a big off season last summer it helped me get off to a great start.
“I was really hungry and I had a great pre-season training session, so I’ll follow those same tactics again.
“I really wanted to win this event for Laura [Massaro] and all of my team. Karim Darwish back home too has done a great job with me, and I think I’ve disappointed my team a bit in the last month. They’ve all been pushing me and I owed them one last push, I’m really glad I managed to do that.”
Watch replays and highlights from the PSA Squash Tour Finals now on SQUASHTV.
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Result
[2] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) bt [4] Sivasangari Subramaniam (MAS) 3-1: 11-6, 10-11, 11-8, 11-8 (54m)
