Inaugural Black Ball Open Brings Top-Class Squash Back to Cairo

Cairo will host a major PSA Tour event for the first time in over two years next month when World No.1 Mohamed ElShorbagy tops the inaugural Black Ball Squash Open draw between December 3-9 at the Black Ball Sporting Club.

The Black Ball Open - which will offer over $180,000 in prize money - will be the final PSA World Tour Platinum tournament of 2018 and is the biggest professional squash tournament to take place in Egypt’s capital since the men’s 2016 PSA World Championships.

Alexandria-born ElShorbagy will be the No.1 seed and will appear alongside fellow Egyptians such as Ali Farag, Tarek Momen, Karim Abdel Gawad and Ramy Ashour.

Gawad and Ashour met in the final of the World Championships in Cairo two years ago, with Gawad taking the sport's biggest trophy after Ashour was forced to retire through injury.

Germany’s Simon Rösner will headline the non-Egyptian title charge and the World No.5 will look to build on back-to-back Platinum finals at the U.S. Open and Qatar Classic.

Colombia’s Miguel Angel Rodriguez, New Zealand’s Paul Coll, India’s Saurav Ghosal and Peru’s Qatar Classic semi-finalist Paul Coll are also involved.

Matches held on the glass court will be shown live on SQUASHTV (Rest of World) and Eurosport Player (Europe only).

Entry to the first day of the tournament on Monday December 3 will be free of charge. Tickets for the rest of the tournament will go on sale on Monday November 12.

A women’s Black Ball Open has been scheduled for March 2019. The tournament will be a PSA World Tour Gold event and will take place at the Black Ball Sporting Club between March 11-15.

2018 Black Ball Squash Open - Entry List
1) Mohamed ElShorbagy (EGY)
2) Ali Farag (EGY)
3) Tarek Momen (EGY)
4) Simon Rösner (GER)
5) Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL)
6) Paul Coll (NZL)
7) Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY)
8) Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY)
9) Saurav Ghosal (IND)
10) Diego Elias (PER)
11) Ryan Cuskelly (AUS)
12) Max Lee (HKG)
13) Ramy Ashour (EGY)
14) Declan James (ENG)
15) Omar Mosaad (EGY)
16) Nicolas Mueller (SUI)
17) Raphael Kandra (GER)
18) Cameron Pilley (AUS)
19) Leo Au (HKG)
20) Tsz Fung Yip (HKG)
21) Mathieu Castagnet (FRA)
22) Zahed Salem (EGY)
23) Tom Richards (ENG)
24) Cesar Salazar (MEX)
25) Borja Golan (ESP)
26) Greg Lobban (SCO)
27) Lucas Serme (FRA)
28) Youssef Soliman (EGY)
29) Gregoire Marche (FRA)
30) Mazen Hesham (EGY)
31) Chris Simpson (ENG)
32) Campbell Grayson (NZL)
33) Alan Clyne (SCO)
34) Adrian Waller (ENG)
35) Karim Ali Fathi (EGY)
36) George Parker (ENG)
37) Eain Yow Ng (MAS)
38) Omar Abdel Meguid (EGY)
39) Todd Harrity (USA)
40) Nathan Lake (ENG)
41) Peter Creed (WAL)
42) Karim El Hammamy (EGY)
43) Mohamed Reda (EGY)
44) Joshua Masters (ENG)
45) Tayyab Aslam (PAK)
46) Mostafa Asal (EGY)
47) Shehab Essam (EGY)
48) Shady El Sherbiny (EGY)