Diego Elías makes history in the Tournament of Champions: What does it mean for a South American to win this tournament that has been played since 1930 for the first time?

Diego Elías is called the ‘Puma’ and the Peruvian squash player has pulled out his claws to win the JP Morgan Tournament or Squash Champions Tournament, one of the most important tournaments in the discipline, which has been held since 1930. The national he beat Egyptian Marwan ElShorbagy 11-2, 11-6 and 11-4 to win the crown.

And so the Peruvian took a great personal revenge, who last year also reached the final, but lost it to the Egyptian Ail Farag, at that time and until now number 2 in the world.

This time the result was in his favor for number 5 in the Squash ranking. He clearly beat Marwan ElShorbagy, today number 6 in the world ranking in 49 minutes of play. The Peruvian fights among the greats and emerged victorious in the Platinum Tournament, the highest scale in the Squash calendar.

“It is the equivalent of a Grand Slam. There are seven a year”, says Alejandro Ballón, director of the Peruvian Squash Federation. Each of them distributes 180 thousand dollars in prizes

It is the third Platinum tournament that Diego Elías has won in his career. Last year he did it at the 2022 US Open and in 2021 he won the Qatar Q-Terminals Classic. “He is very solid in his game. It is the first time that a South American has won the Tournament of Champions”, added Ballón.

Indeed, in recent years they have been largely Egyptian victories. Mohamed ElShorbagy won three, Karim Adbel Gawad one, while Ali Farag twice. Only the German broke that supremacy in 2018.

The world ranking of Diego Elías

What is expected now is that Diego Elías rises a few places in the world ranking. He is in fifth place and the victory could make him climb a position – he defended a large part of the points because last year he reached the final.

Elías occupies fifth place from the ranking for several months in a row, at least since November of last year. According to estimates, he could be fourth in the world, since he held in the middle of last year. October became third in the world.

Meanwhile, on the way to the CIB Black Ball in Cairo, a tournament that brings together the best players of the season -like the Masters Tournament in tennis-, he can rise to second place in the rankings to get into the contest that distributes 300,000 dollars in prizes.

Results like that of Diego Elías only boost squash in Peru. That is why the Peruvian Squash Federation already has ready what will be the high performance center in the Villa El Salvador Sports Center.

With the fields that were acquired for the Lima 2019 Pan American Games – the transfer was recently completed – an attempt will be made to promote the sport to have more Diego Elías in our country.

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