El Shorbagy, Tarek Momen, Karim Abdel Gawad favourites at PSA World Championship

Doha, Qatar: The Egyptian trio of Mohamed El Shorbagy, Tarek Momen and Karim Abdel Gawad are firm favourites to win the PSA Men’s World Championship which starts in Doha on Friday.

World No.2 El Shorbagy is the No.1 seed for the Men’s World Championship 2019-2020 and will be looking to become a double World Champion, after his 2017 victory in Manchester.

‘The Beast’ has been in scintillating form so far this season, having reached the final of all three events he has entered. ElShorbagy lifted both the China Open and Oracle NetSuite Open titles, before missing out in the final of the U.S. Open.

His first-round clash will be played on the glass court, where he will face up-and-coming French star Victor Crouin.

Momen is expected to reach the final against ElShorbagy as the No.2 seed in the tournament, as he looks to reach a second straight World Championship final, after doing so in Chicago in February.

The World No.3 has not hit his stride yet in 2019-2020, having lost to ElShorbagy in both the final of the Oracle NetSuite Open and the semis of the U.S. Open.

Momen will face Germany’s Raphael Kandra in the first round in one of the trickier ties to open up the tournament.

World No.4 Gawad is the only other former World champion taking part this week, after winning the title in Cairo in 2016.

The Egyptian comes into this year’s event in great form, having won the last two major tournaments played on home soil, the World Tour Finals in June, and the Egyptian Open in front of the Pyramids last week.

The ‘Baby-Faced Assassin’ will go up against Frenchman Auguste Dussourd in the first round, who qualified for the tournament after winning the Aspin Cup in September.

The highest non-Egyptian ranked player is New Zealand’s Paul Coll, who will be the No.4 seed for the event, looking to better his quarter final appearance from February.

The Kiwi has started strongly in 2019-2020, having reached at least the last eight of both the U.S. Open and the Egyptian Open, going as far as the semis in the latter.

Coll will face Qatari wildcard Hamad Al-Amri, who sits just inside the top 300 in the World Rankings.

The leading European in the World Rankings in Germany’s Simon Rösner, and he will be looking to go one better than his semi-final appearance in Chicago earlier this year.

The ‘German Tree-Chopper’ is yet to make the semis of a tournament in 2019-2020, with a last-eight showing at the U.S. Open his best outing so far.

Rösner will take on England’s Ben Coleman in opening match of the glass court action in the first round, and he will be looking to extend his 100% record over his opponent.

The first South American on our list is Peru’s Diego Elias, who travels to Qatar for the World Championships as the No.6 seed, where he will be looking to improve on a best of reaching the last 32.

The ‘Peruvian Puma’ only made the same stage of the Egyptian Open last week, but he was able to go all the way to the semis of the U.S. Open in Philadelphia in October.

Elias will face Malaysia’s No.2 Ivan Yuen in the first round, with the pair meeting each other for the first time on the PSA World Tour in Doha this week.

Meanwhile, Abdulla Al Tamimi will lead Qatar's challenge and will be hoping to put up a good show in front of his home fans. Al Tamimi will take on French world number 14 Gregoire Marche on Friday.