Gohar secures her return to world No. 1 in April 2022

Egypt’s Nouran Gohar secured her return to World No.1 in April after beating a stalwart Sarah-Jane Perry in three games at the 2022 CIB Black Ball Open in Cairo on Monday.

The 24-year-old played her usual relentlessly aggressive squash against a strong-looking Perry, taking the first two games 11-9 and 11-8. Egyptian players dominated the quarter-finals of the Black Ball Women's Open in Cairo with three athletes making it to the semi-finals of the tournament with New Zealand's Joelle King being the only 'intruder'.

All the quarter-finals matches ended 3-0, with sixth-seeded King defeating fourth-seeded Amanda Sobhy of the U.S  and eighth-seeded Rowan Elaraby beating fellow Egyptian Nour El Tayeb, while second-seeded Nouran Gohar and top seed Nour El Sherbini knocked out respectively fifth-seeded Sarah-Jane Perry and Georgina Kennedy, both from England.

After the match, Gohar confessed that reaching World No.1 had meant more to her than she had suggested previously. “I’m over the moon. In my past interviews, if I’m honest, I was saying that I wasn’t thinking about the ranking, but I wanted it badly. I was working hard every day, but I don’t want it mentioned before matches because it’s freaking me out, ” she said. Current World No.2 Gohar went into the match against No.5 seed Perry knowing victory would mean that she would overtake current occupier Nour El Sherbini regardless of her compatriot’s result against Georgina Kennedy.