Egypt’s World No.5 Nour El Tayeb successfully retained her Cleveland Classic title after she defeated England’s World No. 7 Sarah-Jane Perry in the final of the PSA World Tour Bronze event Monday, February 3, at the Cleveland Racquet Club in Ohio.
The win marks El Tayeb’s second title of the season after lifting the China Squash Open title at the start of the season. The twenty-six-year-old from Cairo also recently made the final of the Carol Weymuller Open in Brooklyn but missed out to compatriot Nouran Gohar.
El Tayeb ensured she got back to winning ways in Cleveland, however, as she continued her strong run of form in the U.S. to come from one game down against England’s Perry and capture her tenth PSA title.
It was a brutal opening two games between the two players, with very accurate squash from Perry seeing her open up the lead and started the second well with her good variation of shots to set herself 10-5 up. However, that was not enough as El Tayeb saved eight game balls in total to tie the match. El Tayeb was then able to press ahead in the remaining two games as she broke the resolve of the Englishwoman, using her clever racket skill to seal her victory by a 10-12, 14-12, 11-5, 11-4 margin.
2020 marks the Cleveland Classic’s fourteenth edition since its founding in 2007.