Egyptian World No.3 Nouran Gohar and World No.4 Raneem El Welily will face off for the title of 2016 Women’s Wadi Degla Open Champion tomorrow when they meet in the final of the PSA W50 tournament taking place at their home club in Cairo.
The duo, both of whom train and play at the Wadi Degla club, came through contrasting yet challenging last four battles with eight-time World Champion Nicol David and Welsh qualifier, and tournament surprise package, Tesni Evans to set up what will be their sixth PSA World Tour encounter and their second title-decider.
It was El Welily who triumphed when the pair met in the 2014 China Open final and she secured her place in tomorrow's finale after banishing the demons of her World Championship final defeat to Malaysian Nicol David on Egyptian soil two years ago. El Welily held four championship balls in that encounter but put the record straight by coming from behind in the fifth to secure victory this time around and book her place in the final.
"Even in the last few points I don’t think my head was there anymore but she made the errors and I’m really grateful for those," said El Welily.
"I wasn’t [thinking about her World Championship final defeat] until before the match. Then in the fourth game it kind of came back. I was down in the entire fifth and I think the memory from last time gave me the push to not quit and to keep pushing harder."
Gohar, the 19-year-old World Junior champion who has already ascended to No.3 on the World Rankings, came through her encounter with Evans in more comfortable fashion, prevailing 3-1.
"I realised in the third that my pace wasn’t as high as it was in the first two games," said Gohar.
"I was trying volley as much as I could in the fourth and I was trying to get my concentration back and make it faster.
"Raneem and I train a lot together here at the same club and I’m glad we both got to the final. It’s such an honour for us to play in this club in front of this crowd tomorrow."
Results - Semi-finals: Women's Wadi Degla Open
[3] Raneem El Welily (EGY) bt [1] Nicol David (MAS) 3-2: 9-11, 13-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-7 (70m)
[2] Nouran Gohar (EGY) bt [Q] Tesni Evans (WAL) 3-1: 11-5, 11-2, 9-11, 11-4 (51m)
Draw - Final:
[3] Raneem El Welily (EGY) v [2] Nouran Gohar (EGY)
-ends-
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