Men & Women $3k PSA Challengers, 21-24 Dec, Cairo
Egyptian duo Menna Walid and Kareem El Torkey claimed the final titles of 2023, winning the SODIC Squash Open on home soil in Sheikh Zayed. The two players were seeded No.1 and No.2 in the respective women’s and men’s competitions and came out on top of contrasting finals to get their hands on the trophies.
Walid – already a two-time winner on the PSA Tour this season – was taking on No.2 seed Nour Khafagy in the women’s final, and was quickly into a commanding position, winning each of the first two games 11-7.
But the match came to life in game three, as the pair traded blows in a breathtaking tiebreaker as Khafagy desperately held on to keep her hopes alive, eventually winning it 21-19 to send the match into a fourth.
That fourth would also go to a tiebreak, but this time, Walid got over the line, clinching a 65-minute victory with a 14-12 game-four win to secure her third career title.
That result followed a more straightforward win for El Torkey in the men’s final.
The 19-year-old was taking on the unseeded Yassin Shohdy, who had already knocked out two seeds en route to the final, but there would be no fairytale finale for Shohdy, who was comprehensively beaten.
The final scoreline read 11-3, 11-2, 11-5, with El Torkey needing just half an hour to complete his victory, securing a second Tour title.
