Ali Farag Advances to Main Draw in Tournament of Champions

While the other members of the Harvard squash teams took the week off, senior Ali Farag and junior Amanda Sobhy did not take a rest over the weekend. The number one players for the men’s and women’s squash teams, respectively, Farag and Sobhy competed against the world’s best squash players in the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions.

Farag battled through the qualifying round and into the main draw with two Friday wins over top-50 opponents but ultimately fell in his first main draw match, losing to world no. 26 Chris Simpson in four sets. On the women’s side, Sobhy won her first qualifying match and will have a chance Sunday to qualify for the main draw.

After winning his first qualifying match, Farag earned a qualifying berth with a straight-set win over Cesar Salazar, 11-9, 11-4, 12-10. It was Farag’s first trip to the main draw.

Both players arrived at the tournament at the top of their respective games. The two arrived in Cambridge in fall 2011, going undefeated and winning the individual national championships that year. Sobhy defended her title last year, taking down Trinity’s Kanzy El Dafrawy in the finals of the individual championships. Farag’s back-to-back effort came up just short, however, as he lost in the semifinals to the eventual tournament champion.

Before coming to Boston, Sobhy became the first American to capture the World Junior Squash Championship in 2010, taking home the world title on her seventeenth birthday. She was the top-ranked American after the win, but it wasn’t until a year later—after winning the CSA championship—that she reached a career-high rank of no. 17 in April 2011.

Farag took a different route, playing his freshman year at American University before transferring to Harvard. In the month he arrived on campus, he was ranked a career high of no. 68. Since, a lack of international play has dropped his rank out of the top 200.