Egypt’s world No. 3 Nour El Tayeb earned her first Carol Weymuller Open title in her fifth career tournament appearance with a four-game final win over England’s Sarah-Jane Perry Monday night at the Heights Casino in Brooklyn, New York.
The $51,250 PSA Tour Bronze draw culminated in El Tayeb, the top seed, and Perry, the two seed, meeting in the final. El Tayeb progressed through the draw with three four-game victories in each round, including a semifinal win over three seed and 2015 champion Alison Waters. In the bottom half of the draw, Perry pulled off a five-game comeback against Team USA’s Amanda Sobhy in the quarterfinals and holding off a stern semifinal challenge from Egypt’s Salma Hany in the semifinals.
In the final, El Tayeb once again needed four games as she dispatched Perry 11-8, 10-12, 11-6, 11-8 in fifty minutes.
El Tayeb’s fall tour in the U.S. got off to a rocky start two weeks ago with a round of sixteen exit at the FS Investments U.S. Open at the hands of Sobhy, but the Egyptian is pleased to be back to her winning ways as the Weymuller marks her first title since the Windy City Open in February.
“At the beginning of this season I think I put too much pressure on myself to do better than last year,” El Tayeb said. “Being in the top four area I was too desperate. When I was interviewed at another tournament they said that I had created a rivalry between me, Nour and Raneem and this put on more pressure. I should have enjoyed it more being in the mix. Then I lost early last week too so I just thought I should enjoy, relax and give it the best I could and this result shouldn’t matter. SJ is very positive and whether she wins or loses she takes more from the match than if she puts pressure on herself. Over the last 2 years there have been a lot of changes in my life, being married to Ali who helps me a lot, together with Haitham Effat and Hossam Nasser, who has added a lot of attacking to my game and Ali Ismail my fitness coach, he has made me fit enough to back up my matches. Thanks to them all.”
The Carol Weymuller Open is one of the PSA Tour’s long-established events with 2018 marking its forty-fifth staging.
“Carol started the junior squash program here at The Heights Casino many years back with her late husband Fred, and it has obviously grown and expanded along with the sport,” said Linda Elriani, Tournament Director. “We always like to thank Carol for all her hard work and dedication back at the start, as we wouldn’t be where we are today with our program if she had not been forward thinking enough to develop squash in this area.”
Watch a replay of the final on the Carol Weymuller Ustream page. Watch an interview with El Tayeb and New York sports journalist Nate Chura below.