One of the sport’s greatest thinkers and a pioneer for the professional game, Jonah Barrington offers his thoughts on all of squash’s biggest talking points in a new monthly column – written exclusively for the PSA World Tour website.
In this month’s column, Jonah discusses the PSA World Championships, the incredible performances of Ali Farag and Nour El Sherbini, as well as THAT Rob Owen interview.
———
By Jonah Barrington
I must confess to being mesmerised by the women’s game and I have been for some years now. The 2022 PSA World Championships have continued that process, while they gave us an even clearer picture of the strength of the female game.
The remarkable Nour El Tayeb returned to the world-class elite and her baby must be very proud of her, and I don’t mean husband Ali [Farag]!
There is now a clutch of so many young players, all potential contenders, and the big question is who really does have the love, hunger, and undiluted passion to make the ultimate sacrifices to fulfil their dreams?
To the champion: I have already said what I think of Nour El Sherbini and my admiration of all her numerous qualities, she is simply ‘The Sherbini’!
I thought that Lee Drew, in a recent Squash Player Magazine, beamed in on her acute and calm awareness in match play, her ability to deal with a multitude of situations and adapt to them, her skill in dealing with a certain pattern of play. Nour has indeed a special kind of squash intelligence.
In the final she was relatively uncomfortable in terms of consistency, as indeed was her opponent Nouran Gohar, but at a time when I felt Nouran was going to increasingly dominate, Nour changed the pattern and essentially never let go.
Her reading of what is going on and ability to introduce more holds, increase the pace and break up the rhythm is something else and made her more than worthy of this, her sixth PSA World Championship.
Nour El Sherbini (fore) takes on Nouran Gohar
Simply put, Nour is, in my opinion, both the greatest player of this generation and, as this World Championship has proven, and again this in my opinion, the greatest women’s player of all time.
There have been many great champions before her, not least Nicol David, who dominated a generation almost like no other and the unforgettable Raneem El Welily, who just happened to be my favourite player!
But Sherbini is unbelievably difficult to play, her ability to play shots from different positions and tie players up is very special and indeed almost unique.
As for Gohar, well Nouran became increasingly uncomfortable during the …….