The Most Controversial Squash Match Of All Time?

Mostafa Asal

Current World No.1 and arguably the most dominant player on the men's PSA Squash Tour right now, Asal has been at the centre of many controversies in the past; however, I think the general opinion of him has sweetened a bit over time.

A bit of background on Asal, he was born in Cairo, Egypt, in 2001 and very quickly made a name for himself on the junior circuit.

Like many top Egyptian players, he came through a system that consistently produces world-class talent, and it didn’t take long for him to stand out.

He won the World Junior Championship in 2019, and from there, his transition into the professional game was rapid.

Unlike some players who take a few years to find their footing on tour, Asal seemed to arrive fully ready.

He climbed the rankings incredibly quickly, picking up titles, beating top players, and establishing himself as a genuine threat to the very best in the world within a short space of time.

Despite his age, Asal has always been stocky, strong, and extremely explosive when moving.

His playing style is incredibly imposing.

He looks to take the ball early, inject pace into rallies, and constantly apply pressure, often forcing opponents onto the back foot.

When he’s in full flow, he looks almost unplayable.

However, it would be impossible to talk about Asal without mentioning the controversies that have followed him throughout his career.

There have been numerous discussions around his movement, particularly in the middle of the court, with accusations of blocking and creating interference.

This was especially pertinent when Asal first emerged on tour.

At times, this led to conduct penalties, referee decisions, and a lot of debate among players and fans.

I must admit that I really wasn't a fan of him when he first joined the Tour; however, the more I watched, the more I realized that he was going to be the dominant force in the sport moving forward.

In more recent times, it does feel like there has been a shift.

Asal has been working with English ex-pro and current coach, James Willstrop, to reform that area of his game.

He seems to have made a conscious effort to tidy up certain aspects of his movement and behaviour, and as a result, many people have started to warm to him more.

Personally, I've grown to like him a lot more.

Originally, I wasn't a fan of his celebrations and antics on the court; however, this began to flip when I realized that the conversation it provoked was good for the sport.

To me, he does seem like a genuinely good person who loves the sport, who is also still young with plenty of time to grow.

That's not to say that there aren't still some issues with his game; however, I think he's come on leaps and bounds.

Whether you love his style or not, there’s no denying that Mostafa Asal is one of the most impactful players in modern squash, and when he steps on court, something tends to happen.

Diego Elias

On the other side of the glass, you’ve got a very different kind of player in Diego Elias.

Currently sitting at World No.3 and a former World Champion, Elias has established himself as one of the most consistent and composed players on the PSA Tour.

Born in Lima, Peru, in 1996, Elias has been leading the charge for South American squash for a number of years now, and in many ways, he’s already made history for his country.

He became the first Peruvian player to reach World No.1 and the first South American to win the PSA World Championships, which was a huge moment for the sport outside of its traditional strongholds.

Unlike Asal’s explosive rise, Elias’ journey to the top has felt more gradual and methodical.

He’s been around the top level for a long time, steadily improving year after year, refining his game, and building the experience needed to compete with the very best.

In terms of playing style, Elias is often described as one of the smoothest movers on tour, and I firmly agree with that.

Everything he does looks effortless.

He glides around the court, reads the game exceptionally well, and rarely looks rushed, even under pressure.

Where Asal brings power and intensity, Elias brings control and precision.

He’s brilliant at taking the pace off the ball, using height, angles, and tight lines to move his opponents into uncomfortable positions.

Rather than forcing winners, he tends to build rallies intelligently, waiting for the right moment to take control.

Even in high-pressure situations, he tends to stick to his game plan and trust his ability to outmanoeuvre his opponent over the course of a match.

Coming into this semi-final, he was facing one of the toughest challenges in the game, taking on the in-form World No.1 on a huge winning streak, in Egypt, in front of a home crowd.

But Elias is pretty much the only player on tour right now who has the style and temperament to deal with that kind of test.

Head-to-Head Comparison

When you look at these two on paper, it’s actually a really interesting matchup.

You’ve got Mostafa Asal sitting at World No.1 and Diego Elias at World No.3, so we’re talking about two of the very best players in the world right now.

In terms of their head-to-head record, Asal does have the edge, leading 11-8 across their 19 matches.

That tells you a couple of things straight away.

Firstly, Asal has historically had the upper hand, but secondly, this is a matchup that’s been played a lot, and it’s usually competitive.

Looking at their recent encounters, it’s been a bit of a back-and-forth battle.

There have been many five-setters and a few 3-1 results between the pair. On very rare occasions, there's a 3-0; however, this doesn't happen often, and, if it does, it's still very close.

Asal got the better of Elias in the final of the Optasia Championships earlier this year in a tight five-game match. Asal also beat him 3-1 in the 2025 CIB Egyptian Open.

However, Elias overcame Asal in the final of the 2025 British Open and at the 2025 JP Morgan Tournament of Champions.

Most major PSA Squash Tour finals will feature Asal and Elias unless a major upset happens.

I'd say it's clear that they're both top of the pile right now.

Stylistically, it’s almost a clash of opposites between these two.

Asal brings that physicality, pace, and relentless pressure, whereas Elias is more about control, movement, and precision.

When those two styles meet, it often creates quite chaotic and unpredictable matches.

While Asal does lead the head-to-head, it’s definitely not a one-sided rivalry either.

You'd also be hard-pressed to find any other player who has even close to that many wins against Mostafa, other than the recently retired Ali Farag (who actually led Mostafa 19-11 in their head-to-head).

If anything, it feels like one of those matchups where the result can swing either way depending on form, conditions, crowd, and, as we’ve just seen in El Gouna… referee decisions.

The El Gouna Semi-Final: A Deep Dive

Coming into this match, Mostafa Asal was on a whopping 27-match winning streak, which tells you everything you need to know about the level he’s been operating at.

However, Elias was missing for most of the first half of the season as well as the first part of the second half following a knee surgery, meaning that he hasn't been able to challenge Mostafa for a long time.

He did return a couple of months back, but really didn't seem himself until he'd played a few tournaments.

With that said, before their 2026 Optasia Championships final clash, Mostafa Asal was already on an incredible run, winning 21 consecutive matches without dropping a single game.

Even though Asal won the match, it was Elias who stopped that streak of straight 3-0 wins for Asal, taking the match all the way to the fifth but losing 11-5 in the final game.

From the very first rally in El Gouna, it was clear that this match was going to be a serious battle.

Elias came out firing in the first game. Both players had the benefit of a rest day beforehand, and Elias looked sharp, composed, and completely in control of the tempo.

He was moving the ball beautifully, taking the pace off at the right times, and forcing Asal into uncomfortable positions.

What stood out most to me was that Asal, who is usually incredibly composed, looked slightly rattled. That doesn’t happen very often.

Elias took the first game 11-6, and at that point, it felt like he had made a real statement.

But, as we’ve seen so many times before, Asal responded exactly how top players do.

He came out with relentless pace, volleying aggressively, cutting the ball off early, and firing in winners from all areas of the court. It was a complete momentum shift, and Elias had no answers in that game as Asal stormed through it 11-2.

At 1-1, the match was perfectly poised.

The third game is where things started to change slightly.

The rallies became longer, more attritional, and both players began to show a bit more patience.

We started to see more structure in the rallies, with both players working openings rather than forcing them too early.

However, this is also where things began to get a bit scrappy.

There were multiple decisions, both players used (and lost) their reviews, and the referee became more involved as the tension increased. You could sense a shift in the atmosphere, both on court and in the crowd.

At 9-9, it was anyone’s game.

Asal managed to edge ahead, earning himself a game ball before finishing the game with a huge forehand winner to take it 11-9 and go 2-1 up.

At this point, you felt like the momentum was with him.

The fourth game, though, was a strange one.

Up until around 4-4, things felt relatively normal, but then Asal’s accuracy just seemed to drop off. He made a cluster of uncharacteristic errors, and Elias capitalized brilliantly, pushing all the way out to 10-4.

To Asal’s credit, he pulled it back to 10-8, but the gap was too big, and Elias closed it out 11-8 to force a fifth.

By now, there had already been a number of decisions, and both players had received conduct warnings during the match.

There was quite a bit of dialogue with the referee, and Elias, in particular, was beginning to show visible frustration with Asal’s movement.

Then came the fifth.

And this is where everything really kicked off.

Photo credit: Steve Cubbins

Asal started the decider exactly how you’d expect from a World No.1. He came out aggressively, took control early, and raced into a 6-1 lead. Within minutes, it looked like the match was done.

At 7-2, Elias seemed down and out. He was visibly frustrated, even angry with himself, and it felt like Asal was about to close things out comfortably.

But then, the momentum shifted… dramatically.

A sequence of decisions started to go Elias’ way, particularly strokes.

Now, this is where the controversy really comes into play.

There were multiple stroke decisions awarded to Elias that, in my opinion, were very harsh. Personally, I would have called some of them no lets, or at the very least yes lets.

I want to be clear here, this isn’t about criticizing the referee, Andrea Santamaria. Referees already get more than enough scrutiny as it is.

The bigger issue, in my view, is context.

Asal has built a reputation over the years for his movement, particularly around blocking, using his body, and making himself big in the middle of the court.

Because of that, referees are now watching him extremely closely.

So now, any movement that even slightly looks off tends to be penalized.

Sometimes that’s absolutely the right call.

But I do think there’s an argument that similar movements from other players don’t get punished in the same way.

And I also think opponents are becoming increasingly aware of this.

You’ll often see players putting their hand up, asking for decisions more frequently against Asal, and trying to use that reputation to their advantage.

It creates a very difficult situation for everyone involved.

Anyway, back to the match.

This run of decisions allowed Elias to claw his way back to 7-8.

Then came the pivotal moment.

Elias hit a cross-court shot that wasn’t great at all. It didn’t have enough width, and it gave Asal (who was on the T) the opportunity to punch it hard, low, and straight.

Asal read it well and volleyed what looked like a winner to me.

However, because the line to the ball technically went through Asal, Elias put his hand up and asked for a decision.

The referees reviewed it and awarded a stroke.

On top of that, Asal was given a conduct stroke for an accumulation of movement offences.

Just like that, the score flipped from what looked like an Asal-winning rally to Elias leading 9-8.

That’s an enormous swing in a deciding game.

From there, you could see the shift mentally.

Asal was understandably frustrated, his focus clearly affected by the decision, and within a couple of rallies, the match was gone.

Elias closed it out 11-8 after 93 minutes.

Another thing worth mentioning is that Elias himself had already received a conduct warning earlier in the match, and then picked up another one in the fifth for racquet abuse.

Unless I’m mistaken, I was under the impression that a second offence typically escalates beyond just another warning, which adds another layer of confusion to how things were managed.

Now, if I’m being completely honest about my overall view on the match…

I do feel like the result was heavily influenced by the refereeing decisions in that fifth game.

That doesn’t take anything away from Elias.

He played incredibly well, showed serious resilience, and tactically caused Asal a lot of problems throughout the match.

And from a broader perspective, it’s actually quite exciting for the sport to see someone stop a run like that.

A 27-match winning streak coming to an end definitely shakes things up.

But at the same time, it’s hard to ignore how pivotal those decisions were in that final stretch.

The reaction from the squash community has been fascinating.

From what I’ve seen, it seems like a pretty even split.

Some people feel the decisions were justified given Asal’s movement, while others feel they were far too harsh and ultimately decided the outcome.

One thing we can all agree on, though, is that it’s got people talking.

Whether that’s a good thing or not probably depends on your perspective.

Looking ahead, it’ll be interesting to see if anything changes in terms of refereeing or how situations like this are handled. So far, the PSA hasn’t said much publicly about the match.

What is worth mentioning, however, is that there were reports of a fan making a physical threat towards the referee after the match, which is completely unacceptable.

There’s absolutely no place for that in our sport, regardless of how strongly people feel about a decision.

At the end of the day, this match has highlighted just how fine the margins are at the very top level, not just in terms of skill, but in interpretation, perception, and decision-making.

It’s messy, it’s complicated, and it’s clearly a topic that isn’t going away anytime soon.

Decisions aside, I thought it was a really good match to watch as a spectator though. Both players did a great job of tactically imposing their styles over the other.

The quality was pretty ridiculous at times, and it's very clear why these two are at the top right now.

Anyway, thanks for reading and hopefully this didn't infuriate you too much if you don't agree with me!

I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts on it if you watched the match too.

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