In a sport built on precision and control, pressure remains one of the few variables that even the world’s most complete players cannot fully master.
Just ask Ali Farag. As a four-time World Champion and one of the most decorated players in the history of the men’s game, the Egyptian is no stranger to high-stakes battles. Yet the tour’s flagship event, the PSA World Championships, still continues to challenge him in unexpected ways.
“The nerves definitely come into it at the World Championships,” Farag admitted.
“Last year, I came up against a brilliant Diego Elias in the semi-finals, and he was on fire, but I froze. “Believe it or not, because of the amount of pressure that had been mounting for the previous weeks, the second I was off court, in a way I was so relieved. Obviously, I was disappointed, I was sad – all of these negative emotions – but I could take a deep breath, and thought ‘finally’.
“It was only fair that Diego could shine in that moment – he deserved it big time, and I looked forward from that point on. Maybe it was because of the occasion, especially because it was at home in Egypt, and I was playing in front of my friends and family.
“I was just surprised that I was so stressed, though, because after winning my first World Championships, I never really looked at it in a stressful way. We played in Egypt a couple of years earlier and I wasn’t that stressed.
“Maybe last year it was because I was having my best-ever season and I was on paper maybe the favourite to win it, in my eyes at least, and that probably put a lot of pressure on myself.”
A year on from his semi-final defeat to Elias, Farag will once again have the opportunity to move third in the all-time list of men’s winners at the PSA World Championships, and in turn, sit behind just six-time champion Jahangir Khan and eight-time winner Jansher Khan – arguably the two greatest players to ever grace the sport.
Despite having captured the sport’s biggest prize in 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023, Farag’s outlook and hunger for success at the PSA World Championships shows no signs of fading.
“I don’t want to ridicule any of the other prestigious tournaments as you dream of winning all of them, but the World Championships is the tournament you always want to win as a kid,” he said.
“If you become a World Champion, that is something that no one can ever take away from you.
“There’s a whole different alias on the World Championships. This is the one tournament that you gear up for and you try to hit peak form in.
“I don’t really know how to explain it as it’s something that is hard to put into words. But it is definitely the one tournament that everyone looks forward to every year and that is why, more often than not, you see the best quality squash there.
“The nerves don’t happen in other tournaments as much, and those are the things that you have to deal with. Only the very, very best players can deal with that.
“I think that is why the World Championships rewards the very best players.”
With this year’s edition of the PSA World Championships returning to Chicago – a city in which Farag has won three of his four World Championship crowns – the 32-year-old will be among the strong pre-tournament title contenders.
However, in contrast to last year’s campaign, which came at the height of his commanding 95-week tenure as World No.1, Farag will enter the 2024–25 World Championships ranked second in the world.
The Egyptian admitted that this factor, along with the standout form of now-World No.1 Mostafa Asal, could help take some pressure from his shoulders as he goes in search of his fifth World Championship title.
“It doesn’t really matter if I go into the match as World No.2 or World No.1 in my mind, but it does actually probably take a little bit of pressure off me,” Farag admitted.
“However, I will be as hungry, as eager to win it as I was last year and all of the previous years.
“I know that the challenge that lies ahead is different to previous years. I would say now that at some point I had my generation fighting for it – which I was used to – now it is people younger than me, like Diego [Elias] and Mostafa [Asal], as well as people in my generation.
“It’s maybe a different challenge. It’s maybe a bit more physical, a little bit more explosive than my generation. So there are different things that I have to deal with.
“I think the fact that I lost last year at the World Championships, though, is making me a little bit calmer.”
If Farag is to continue his love affair with Chicago and the PSA World Championships, he will have to come through a potential draw full of quality opponents.
If the event were to go to seeding, the 46-time PSA Tour winner will face off against 2010 World Champion Tarek Momen in the quarter-finals before a repeat of last year’s clash with Diego Elias in the last four.
From there, a straight shootout against Mostafa Asal might well await, with both the World No.1 ranking position and World Championship crown potentially on the line.
The 2024/25 PSA World Championships presented by the Walter Family gets underway on 9th May and runs to the 17th. All of the action will be available to watch live on SQUASHTV and selected broadcast partners later in the event.
For more information on the PSA World Championships 24/25, visit the tournament website or follow the PSA on X, Facebook,Instagram, YouTube,
