Victory in last year’s PSA World Series Finals here was the start of Mohammad Al Shorbagy’s comeback in squash. Now, he wants to win it again to continue his pursuit for greatness.
“It’s not about winning it once, it’s about consistency and doing it year-after-year, finding a way to win even when you’re not at your best,” said the world No. 1 top seed heading into Dubai, where the season-ending event got under way at Emirates Golf Club on Tuesday.
Coming into this event last year, the 27-year-old Egyptian had lost his world No. 1 spot after a 28-month reign at the top, but victory in this event was a turning point in his career.
“I wanted to win Dubai last year to send a little message of what I was going to do this season. To say that I didn’t do well the season before but I was still capable of beating anyone on my day.
“I worked hard over the summer and took confidence from that win into this season.”
It worked, as including Dubai, he went on to feature in 11 of 13 finals this season, winning eight, including his first World Championship. The season before he had only featured in three finals winning two.
“I needed to lose the ranking to make me realise what I had. If someone else gets it now it is because they are a better player but not because I’m out of form, this is what I’m not going to accept anymore, being out of shape and overweight, because that’s unacceptable at this level.
“The hardest thing to do in any sport is to get your world No. 1 spot back after having lost it because you need to realise the level you were at to get it before is no longer acceptable because someone else has raised the bar.
“People thought I would never get back to world No. 1 again but the way I thought about it was my world No. 1 time hadn’t even started, even though I was there for 28 months.
“For me, 28 months is not what I’m looking for, I’m looking to go far longer. I’m looking for greatness and to do this, you cannot stop. I want to finish my career one day and be remembered as one of the greatest athletes to have ever played this sport. There have been many world No. 1s, but few you can say have done things others have never done.
“I’ve played through three generations of players and each one has found a weakness in me, I’m not worried about them finding that because that’s how you improve as a player.
“I got found out before and had to bring something new to my game, I had to train differently and understand my body, that’s something I’ve learnt over time and I have that advantage over my generation.
“At some point they are going to learn that too by playing tough matches like these, they’ve already started showing it by winning odd events but as yet no one is consistent. I learnt that from the Nick Matthew and Gregory Gaultier generation and at some point, people are going to learn that from our generation.”
By Ashley Hammond
