Final: Ali loses his way, Mostafa finds his…

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[2] Mostafa Asal (EGY) 3-2 [1] Ali Farag (EGY)  6-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-5 (91m)

Fram reports

Ali was hugely disappointed. It’s only the third time in his PSA career that he lost from 2/0 up since 2016. It was another two finals: BlackBall 2020 against Fares Dessouky and Optasia 2024 against Paul Coll (stats courtesy of SquashInfo and Jérôme Elhaïk)

Not to have lost. But he feels he let himself down. He didn’t have to tell me. I know him enough to know. I saw him winning and losing, he is always able to analyse and take a step back. But tonight, he lost because he stopped doing what he was doing, and that was working so well.

I could be completely wrong in the theory I’m going to present to you – it would be the first time, NOT. Ali played the same cat and mouse game in the first two rallies than he did the night before against Joel. And it worked as well as it did last night.

Up to 4/0 in the third. At that point, I heard a little voice ‘I hope Ali is not going to relax and see the finishing post too early’. I think he did. He lowered the guard, just a little few rallies, and that was opening the Pandora Box – I’m not going to do the “red flag to the Bull”… Oh go on then.

But more worrying, Ali did something I hadn’t seen him do: instead of playing the shots, playing the ball, Ali was stopping as soon as there was a contact with Mostafa. It was like his body, his brain was refusing to go through the pain of being pushed around in very physical rallies like the “Old Mostafa” used to impose on the Tour, that same “Old Mostafa” who played against Paul the night before, one of the worst game I saw from the world number one for a pretty long time.

Or it was maybe because he didn’t want to get kicked in the stomach again? The refs had a lot of work to do tonight, they can’t get it right all the time. For example, when Ali asked for a review on a no let as he lead 9/6 in the second, and given a stroke by the video ref, I laughed so loud people looked at me!

So I guess they can miss that one too:

One thing is sure. Ali was in control, and lost that control. Mostafa power came back with a vengeance as Ali was pushed to the back more and more, having to cover more ground to contain the bazooka attacks from the Bull.

There was nothing in the third and fourth between them, 9/9 in the 3rd, Ali making only one error, but Mostafa finding his best shots at the end of the game, 11/9 in 14m.

Same in the 4th, 8/8, 10/8, one of the 4 unforced errors from the Bull, but it’s still 11/9 in 19m.

Ali is broken mentally in the 5th, he keeps pushing but Mostafa is flying in front, fresh as a rose. 7/1, 11/5 in 13m still of hard work…

PSA report:

With the World No.1 spot on the line between the two, the stakes could not have been higher in the men’s final between Asal and Farag. Both players started in great style, using all four corners of the court with a mixture of paces, showcasing their skill level for the El Gouna crowd. Asal took a narrow lead in the mid stage to lead 6-5 but a flurry of errors from the current World No.1 allowed Farag to win six points in a row to lead 1-0.

The second game followed a similar pattern with both players eager to try and dictate the pace. Asal was trying to increase it whilst Farag looked to trying to slow it but inject pace at the right time. The four-time World Champion’s tactics were working perfectly as he took a huge 2-0 lead, winning 11-7.

Farag continued his web-weaving in game three and looked to be frustrating Asal, who was struggling to find winners against the three-time El Gouna champion. Farag looked to be storming to victory as he lead 7-4 but the current World No.1 was not done yet. He capitalised on some loose Farag drops to thunder the ball past the top seed and levelled at 7-7. As the score reached 9-9, another thunderous cross court followed by a devastating kill sealed the game for Asal to breathe more life in the contest. Asal continued his momentum from winning the third game and rattled off the winners in game four to level the tie at 2-2.

Asal found top form in the fifth game, he twisted and turned the fading Farag, moving the No.1 seed into all four corners at pace, which Farag was struggling to keep up with. Asal stormed to a 7-1 lead in the decider and looked sure to be lifting the trophy. Despite Farag claiming a few more points, the ‘Raging Bull’s’ charge couldn’t be halted. He took the final game 11-5 to win a second El Gouna International title and a fifth title of the season.

Ali : I need to improve. I need to play better.

I need to deal with situations better, and keep my game plan as structured as possible. It’s not always easy but I’ll keep working harder.

I lost my way. I shouldn’t have lost my way, and I should stick to my game plan better, regardless to what happens.

James Willstrop, coach to Mostafa : I was trying to keep him calm. The main thing is playing good squash, take the pressure off him and trying to have a nice clean match. That’s what we are after, we are trying. I know there is work to be done, he was not getting penalised too much today, so I guess it was better than last night. Because last night was not smooth. I know you didn’t like it, and there were a lot of truth in your report. It wasn’t my most enjoyable matches by any stretch.

We are really working on having less decisions. Everyone wants to see flowing game, you can play squash, but there are still a lot of decisions, so we are working, and I’m checking in in the videos. It’s a lifetime of doing that, so it’s hard, but I thought there was a lot of good stuff tonight.

He got penalised when he should have done, quite right, just accept that. You’ve got the movement wrong, everyone gets the movement wrong, I used to get movements wrong, everyone does, just accept it and keep playing the game.

I’m very proud of the way he fought, I could see he was doing a lot of good stuff in the first two, but the easy thing it to panic, from my point of view as well. But there was so much good, it was starting to tell, and I had to convince Moustafa of that. I could see in his eyes, and I had to tell him you are going to be alright, just keep going, and then he did…

It started to unravel a little bit, the web….  It’s bloody hard, but then again, it’s not supposed to be easy, is it….

Mostafa : “I was super lucky today to get over the line.”

“It was such a battle today between me and Ali. Ali is such a legend of the sport and he’s one of a kind. I’m happy with my performance, I wanted to dig in and that’s what Jimbo [James Willstrop] was telling me and I’m really proud of myself today.

“I want to thank everyone for watching us here, it’s such a unique tournament and we love coming her every year. There’s lots of tournaments every season but its a good thing. We’re very proud that there are so many events for fans to watch us and hopefully mine and Ali’s rivalry can continue.

“James was telling me to stay calm and it’s a credit to him and all of my team. My fitness coach, the physio, my father, my uncle..everyone.”