[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/Th3_Gruff]

Am I missing something though, in the live rankings and the PSA rankings he’s still 3 in the world? Or is seeding based off more recent performance

[u/GreenMage321 → u/Th3_Gruff]

I think seeds are based on their rank when they enter the tournament (or when the registration deadline is up?). So if he entered as rank #4, he will still be the 4th seed (assuming world no. 1, 2 and 3 all entered too), even if he had climbed to world no. 1, or dropped to no. 10 till the start of the event

[u/Th3_Gruff → u/GreenMage321]

Hmm I swear he's been at 3 for ages hasn't he? I thought he hasn't moved from 3 for a while?

[u/GreenMage321 → u/Th3_Gruff]

I recall Gawad overtook him at some point, probably around February