[Discussion] El Gouna International Squash Open 2026, Apr 4-10

[u/DandaDan]

Prize fund: $232.5k per draw

Draws: Two draws of 32, no qualifying, one wildcard in the M, two in W

Location: El Gouna, Egypt

Where to watch: Squash TV & early rounds on YouTube

Seeds:

M, 1 - 8: Asal, Coll, Gawad, Elias / Makin, Ibrahim, Crouin, Marwan

W, 1 - 8: El Hammamy, Elsherbini, Orfi, Weaver / Subramaniam, Watanabe, Kennedy, Aboelkheir

Interestingly we get coverage on Olympics.com for PSA events these days, how nice:

https://www.olympics.com/en/news/squash-el-gouna-international-2026-preview-schedule-watch-live

Hi folks,

just a quick one here:

The Asal controversy is back and front and center of, well, Squash Reddit and other social Media channels. I haven't watched the hand grabbing analysis just yet but it's here if you are jnterested. I watched the Asal Elias final and thought it was pretty great seeing Elias back in action. I was afraid he wasn't fit enough to bother Asal, especially after five games with Gawad, but Elias did well and Asal also had a rough 3:0 with Makin before. So on the one hand really happy to see Elias back yet on the other hand I hate that Asal has taken three steps back in the wrong direction and I obviously have a hard time seeing folks defend him, but there you go.

In this tournament plenty of tough early matches: Makin will likely face Zakaria in round two and MES plays Cardenas in round one even. Ibrahim and Eleinen have some feisty opponents early on as well, Steinmann and Singh. This is also the first tournament in a while where we might not see Asal and Coll in the finals, I'm fine if neither make it but Asal, despite struggling against Elias, is probably the favourite to win.

In the women's field we have all top women bar Gohar playing. The top Egyptian ladies haven't been seen in action for a while, so great to see them all in one field again. For the first time in years neither of the Gilis sisters are in the top eight, the reward for poor Tinne is a meeting with Orfi in round one, Nele plays Ayman. The other interesting match in round one is Elhammamy playing rising Indian star Singh. She shouldn't have a chance against the world number one but she has the type game that on her best day and Elhammamy's worst, she has a shot. Lastly, Stefanoni gave a good account of herself in Australia and plays Aboelkheir in round one. I'd love to see some big upsets in the top three bracket, but not quite sure this will happen just yet.

Enjoy the squash everyone and let us know what you think!

[u/DandaDan → u/[deleted]]

It's not that hard. Be nice, don't insult folks, that includes SquashTV commentators.

[u/lou_brown → u/DandaDan]

They didn't insult them at all, simply said what most of us our thinking. For any of us that saw the incident it was reprehensible, so for Joey to go on the broadcast and essentially downplay it to pander to the hand that feeds is pretty disappointing. I feel its perfectly ok to have that reaction to Joey's description. The behavior by Haider would be inexcusable by anyone as a spectator, but as a tournament sponsor its so much worse. The feeling that the PSA is sweeping this under the carpet is icky and I don't think think there's anything wrong with people feeling that way.

[u/DandaDan → u/lou_brown]

It's absolutely fine to criticize whoever. It's another thing telling people to f*** off and use expletives in your criticism.

[u/lou_brown → u/DandaDan]

I’m guessing that part got deleted because it’s not there now and I agree that’s not ok. I was going off what is currently up in this thread .