F: A match too far for young Zak against Diego
[4] Diego Elias (PER) 3-0 Mohamad Zakaria (EGY) 11-1, 11-7, 11-1 (38m)
Normally, I manage to speak with the runner-up after the final. But tonight, I didn’t have the heart to annoy Zakaria. He was with his sister, Talia, and his little brother, who worships him and who was not impressed by the fact that he had to stay with sister and not follow big brother on the court for the trophy ceremony! He must have felt so disappointed that he didn’t perform to his normal standard.
Today, Diego showed us why he became world champion and world number one. He was patient, clinical, and put so much work in Zakaria’s legs… He never gave him a sniff…
And if the score looks one-sided, it wasn’t as simple as that.
It just happened that Zakaria was on the wrong end of very long and gruelling rallies, where he was at the back, running, retrieving and got some beautiful attacks of his own. But the score in the first game and last doesn’t reflect it all. The length of the game might: 12m 11/1, as long as the second game that went 11/7…. The last game a bit shorter, 9m.
It was strange to look at Zak playing Diego. As they both had/have Jonathan Power as mentor, they have a bit of a similar game. But Diego was a bit better at it tonight.
I think the mental side tonight was enormous: Ziko spent so much mental energy to keep beating his opponents, who were way above his ranking. And tonight, Diego experienced those big moments, those big finals, the pressure, the expectations, the hopes others put on the shoulders of the players.
Tonight was Diego’s night.
But Zakaria is, as Safi our MC put it clearly and simply, the future of not only Egyptian Squash, but of squash. Khalas meshi.
PSA Note:
Peru’s Elias became the first non-Egyptian winner of the El Gouna International since France’s Gregory Gaultier in 2017.
more quote to come
Diego : “I’m super happy with my whole week.
“I went back to my game, I stopped making errors and just starting playing as solid as I could.
“I’m feeling really good physically. The whole game is different. I’m way more comfortable on court and I’m in a good position almost every time.
“I’m also really pleased with the way I felt after that tough match yesterday. It shows that all the hard work paid off.
Coming back from injury was no fun at all. I didn’t enjoy it at all! Coming to tournaments, losing matches maybe I shouldn’t have lost. I’m happy I was still positive, I knew that I would go back to my level.
It feels great to win here in Egypt, in my first final in El Gouna. This season, I lost a lot of finals, so it feels good to win my first tournament of the season. I’m super happy to come back to my level and being in a good form for the end of the season, as we have a lot of important tournaments coming up.
El Gouna is amazing, one of the best event in the world for sure and we always love to come back. I’ve been coming here for I think 10 years, and I really want to thank everyone, the organisers and the sponsors. It’s a long tournament, we can relax, everyone is enjoying it, so, very happy to win it this year.
