England capture silver at 2023 WSF Men's Team Championships

England captured silver at the WSF Men's World Team Championships in Tauranga, New Zealand today following a highly thrilling final against a strong Egyptian team.

Both sides were yet to drop a single game on route to the finals, with both teams showing their class above the other 22 nations. England defeated old rivals France in their semi-final, whilst Egypt overcame first time semi-finalists Switzerland.

The first match of the contest was between World No.8 Marwan Elshorbagy and World No.4 Mostafa Asal. The pair had not met since their controversial match at the 2023 Houston Open, which took Asal to World No.1 for the first time. The match was competitive throughout with both players determined to dominate the middle and volley at any opportunity to remain in control. Asal played the big points well and managed to close out all three games 11-9 to give Egypt a crucial 1-0 lead.

The No.1 strings were next onto court with 2017 World Champion Mohamed Elshorbagy and current World Champion Ali Farag. The pair have met 28 times on the PSA World Tour with the head-to-head score currently level at 14-14, with Farag winning six of the last seven encounters.

Elshorbagy entered the court with fire in his eyes, poking determined to fight as hard as possible against the World No.1 to level the tie and give England a chance to claim the title. ‘The Beast’ got off to a great start and closed out the opening game 11-8, by playing his aggressive style of squash.

After Farag responded well in the second game to win 11-2, ElShorbagy was back on form and narrowed the angles of Farag to take a 2-1 lead. Farag started to lengthen the rallies, dragging the 32-year-old into all four corners and after claiming game four 11-8, went on to win the fifth and final game 11-7 to secure Egypt’s seventh Men’s World Team Championships title.

For draws visit the WSF tournament website.

Result: 2023 WSF Men’s World Team Championship Men’s final

[1] EGYPT 2-0 [2] ENGLAND
Mostafa Asal bt Marwan ElShorbagy 3-0: 11-9, 11-9, 11-9 (49m)
Ali Farag bt Mohamed ElShorbagy 3-2: 8-11, 11-2, 7-11, 11-8, 11-7 (70m)
Mazen Hesham MW Patrick Rooney