Fram talks to Tarek, the day after his last PSA match, Palm Hills May 2025, the semi-final against Karim Abdel Gawad.

“Not sure I want to retire”..

Those were Tarek’s first words in the recording, as I sat down in his living room, the day after his last PSA match played minutes from his home.

Emotional, yet not realising that whatever he did for the past 30 years was now obsolete, and that he had to rethink his whole daily schedule…

Tarek is one of my closest friends on the Tour with Ali. What always got me close to Tarek was his humility and his lack of confidence. He never believed in himself like other players did. And his game, like Raneem’s, required specific conditions: they were both Formula Ones. If you put a Formula One in the desert sand, it won’t go anywhere. Tarek was a Formula One. Period.

The Momenator had thought about retiring before, though, he confesses.

“In 2022, I was adamant that I was going to retire. I started going to tournaments, thinking this was my last one. Then Omar Abdelaziz came on the scene.

“I had just lost my long time coach Haitham Effat as he had left for the States, and I started working with Omar Abdel Aziz for one season only I thought. Omar talked to me, asking me to give him more time, not to retire yet.

“At the same time, we were hit economically in Egypt with a devaluation that felt surreal. I realised I might have to save up a little bit. That’s when I completely changed my mind, and I decided that I’m going for more” Tarek remembers.

It’s Time

“After the WTF in Seattle last year” the former World Champion continues, “I was on my break when I started to feel some back pain. Which never went away. I had it checked out far too late, was finally diagnosed with a trapped nerve between two bulging discs. They told me to change a lot of things in my routine to try and fix it. It got better but never 100%.

“One week before the Egyptian open, I had started to think how much pain will I tolerate? That’s when the idea of retiring started to creep in: the last four years I don’t think I’ve played a tournament where I haven’t been taking painkillers. At that moment, I tried and stopped the painkillers to look after my health, telling myself I had to accept the pain and somehow tolerate it – which in retrospect was probably not the clever thing to do.”

Losing to Aly Abou Eleinen twice

“Because of the back pain throughout the summer training, I couldn’t build my stamina as much as I needed. So despite making the quarters of the first 3 majors of the season, the lack of solid foundation started to show in my performances. I lost to Ali Abou twice, back-to-back, San Francisco and US Open.

“Ali’s a great player and I could tell while losing to him, that the age factor is there. It was the first time I felt like he’s outpacing me and that he was playing at a pace so much higher than what I could maintain.

“For some reason, that second loss fired something in me, as if I wanted to snap out of this “getting old” mindset and get a grip. To be clear, Aly is one of my favourite people on tour. I love him and I respect him. so, I wasn’t triggered by losing to him at all.

“It was just the competitor inside me that felt, what the hell Tarek? Why don’t you just push yourself and whatever happens, happens. Fine, even if you get injured, you just need to start pushing yourself again. So I took three weeks off after the US Open and I trained, I trained like an 18 year old. And I got better.

“We went to Qatar for a 50K, I beat Aly in the final, I felt young again!”

The Begining of the End: no points to defend!

“That didn’t last long…

“I started to develop a few niggles, and I started to realise that I have ups and downs throughout the days. But after TOC it was a massive drop. A new pain in my adductor, without pain killers, I lost my movement, my timing, it was as if I forgot how to play squash.

“At the end of February 2025, I decided I needed to take some time off, while everyone else was playing tournaments.”

“It was the first time it occurred to me, I’m going to retire so no points to defend!

“That thought never crossed my mind before. I mean, we were playing for points, you know, and for the first time, I could play for pleasure…

“Still, my focus was not to drop out of the top ten. That was the only thing that mattered. I wanted to retire while standing on my feet and healthy and still playing at the highest level. This was my idea of retirement, so I decided this was going to be my last season.”

Sick of the Grinding

“My first event back was El Gouna, and I lost a tough one against Zakaria on a traditional court. I was not mentally prepared. I was taken by surprise, not sharp enough, struggling physically while he was in the zone!

“And I realised I was sick of playing and sick of the grind. What am I doing to myself? Why am I tolerating all this? And that’s when I started to have a very difficult time, emotionally, before anything else. I knew the end was near. I was thinking those might be the last three months of my career and I’m not having a teeny tiny bit of a good time.

“The El Gouna loss sparked something in me again though. I decided that I am taking those painkillers every day until I retire, no matter how long it takes. By doing so I was able to train well again, I could see improvement in my movement, my fitness and everything. And I was happy with the level I was at the worlds.”

Nick Matthew’s Spirit Floating around…

“Believe it or not, Nick Matthew’s last season (2017/2018) has been on my mind quite often those past few months. I remember he was 37 at the time. He would get those really good performances, but was kind of struggling to back them up the way he used to in the past.

“We played twice in that season, I beat him once, then we played at the British Open and he beat me in 5. The next day he played Kandra and lost 3/1. It was supposed to be the last match of his career until he later qualified for the WTF.

“He was obviously disappointed with the result, but Raphi had a brilliant run all the way to the semis that year. I remember Nick posting about this match saying: “you know what, at my age, you can get a great performance one day and then the next day you think you got it, but it’s as if your body is standing in the way.”

“And those words started to resonate with me this season.

“I mean, I would still feel fine physically, but somehow my reflexes were slower, or my responses were slower, it’s so weird to explain.”

Last World Champs

“I was thinking if I go further than the quarters, there’s a good chance I might stop there and then.

“I played Greg Marche in my second round, a very tricky match on a very tricky court against a very tricky opponent. Greg played super well that day. And you know what, coming back from 2/1 and 7/3 down on a traditional court, I felt like I sort of won the tournament!”

“The next day I played Jonah Bryant, no rest day. After having an 86-minute battle against Greg, I had to back it up, and somehow I did! I played my best performance of this season, to win 3-0.
On the day of playing Jonah Bryant, I remembered Nick again. This time for a completely different story, more like a lesson he gave me which came in handy 9 years later !

“Rewind to 2016. I remembered he beat Borja in Chicago. It was a crazy, crazy match, 90m or 100m match. He was 35 at the time. I was playing him the next day in the quarters, and I thought to myself, this is my opportunity, today’s my day. I’m going to get that big win, as I wanted to make the semis of the Windy City Open for the first time.”

“And you know what, he beat me 3/0!!

“I could tell he could not play one more game, I knew it but still… He had the perfect game plan, he played perfect squash. I wasn’t too bad, but he was just perfect, never gave me a chance.

“And that’s exactly what I thought of when I played Jonah: after my match against Greg the night before, I knew I had to play perfect squash. I knew if this match went longer than 3 it was going to favour Jonah who is incredibly dangerous and super fit. All I could think of was what Nick did to me, and somehow I managed to do the exact same thing, played my best match of the season and managed to get the job done in 3.

“Thanks for the lesson, Nick 😉

“After Jonah, I had Ali in the quarters, which was a very tough ask. I went there hoping to cause an upset, but he was super sharp.”

Tearing himself away from the kids

“After Chicago I came back, I was a little disappointed for not progressing further but at the same time I appreciated that I had a good run.

“I realised then I didn’t feel like going to the British Open because Shahir was finishing his nursery, they organised an end of year ceremony, and I wanted to attend Murad’s birthday – also during the British Open: I didn’t want to miss those moments.

“One of the things that affected me the most last year and a half, two years, was the travelling and leaving the kids behind. Every single time I’d be miserable from the day I leave until the day I’m back. Sometimes during a tournament, I’d be thinking, you know what, it won’t be too bad if I lose tomorrow, you know, and that’s not good. At all.”

Palm Hills, the Perfect Ending – Playing Zakaria again?

“When I lost to Zakaria in El Gouna, I was kind of hoping to play him one more time before I retired.

“He was in my section of the draw at the British Open, but I had to go through Youssef Ibrahim first, and Zakaria had to beat Dimitri, so that draw seemed like a lot of ifs for this matchup to happen.

“But Ali withdrew from Palm Hills, and when I saw the new draw, playing Zakaria in the quarters, I was like, OK, this is it, here’s my sign: I will retire here. Palm Hills suddenly became the perfect ending for me: I’m staying at home, my entire family is here, my friends are here. I could retire while everyone’s able to celebrate my last match.

“But the thought of a defeat started creeping in. What if I don’t win? I’d want to go to the British to try and play Zakaria a third time. So will I retire or not??… I didn’t know what to decide.

“On the morning of the quarterfinals against Zak, I finally made up my mind: If he beats me again, then so be it, he’s good enough to do it twice. Good for him, and I’m going to get my retirement here.

“Thankfully, I won that match, and I’m so glad it turned out the way it did because that was sort of an epic match and it will be remembered. 106 minutes at 37 years old, coming out the winner against an up-and-coming 17-year-old, can’t get any better, right?!”

“You see, I was very close to winning it 3/0 if I’d managed to convert those game balls in the 2nd, but you know what? I prefer the other scenario! My second longest match ever [the longest one was against Paul Coll at the Worlds 2022 at the Cairo Museum, 123m] and it was the one where I left it all on the court!

“Didn’t sleep much after to be honest, overwhelmed with emotions and against Karim Abdel Gawad in the semis, I was short, both mentally and physically. But honestly, ending my career against my old friend Karim was fun!”

What changed? No fear of injury!

“Last night, we were sitting very late at night with Raneem. I lifted my right arm up and I could feel pain in my shoulder. So I was like, damn, my shoulder hurts and my initial thought-going by how I approached pain for the past 30 years-what am I going to do about it to fix it?

“And then in a second, I was like, what the hell, why should I care? I can get injured now. I can get hurt. I can, you know, slip, fall, I can do anything, and it won’t matter because I’ll take my time and heal. No more tournaments to worry about! It was such a weird feeling. That was one of the weirdest feelings I’ve ever had.”

Now What??

Now if you ask the Momenator what his plans are, your guess is as good as his!

“What next? I just don’t know. I still haven’t figured it out!” he laughs.

“So I’m going to clear my head, take a month or two off to really think about what I want to do and then it will come to me. So that is the plan.

“I would be happy if I can stay in the field of sports somehow. But I also wouldn’t mind exploring other things, it would be nice to know that after 30 years of doing one thing you can do something else in life.”

Worst Memory?

As his career is coming to an end, what is his worst ever moment?

“It was the World Teams in 2013 and we lost the title to England after I lost the decider to Daryl Selby. There were so many things that happened behind the scenes.

“Initially, I wasn’t picked for the team, which would have been my first time playing for the Egyptian Senior Team. Usually they pick the top 4 players based on our World rankings. I made the cut right before the deadline but they still went ahead and excluded me from the team.

“Although I was disappointed, I accepted the decision, and I just went on holiday after the British Open. I took three weeks off: beach, pool, food, no training. Complete rest!

“All of a sudden, Mohamed Elshorbagy pulls out 4 days before the tournament starts. And I get a call!

“I told them, Listen, guys, I’m sorry, but I’m in no shape to play that tournament. It’s been 3 weeks of no training! They tell me who else are we going to pick?? We need you and blah, blah, blah. So eventually I agreed.

“To make a long story short, I was forced to play all matches over there despite my lack of training, I was chosen to play the final even though I wasn’t fit and when we lost that final, I pretty much took all the blame.

“It was one of the toughest periods of my career, took me a while to bounce back!”

Catching up with Raneem

Now, as I’m sure you are aware, Tarek got married on the 31st May 2014 to World Champion Raneem El Welily.

“Raneem was fighting for the World no.1 spot when we got married” explains Tarek. I wasn’t doing bad myself, already in the top 10, but she was clearly 2-3 steps ahead. I never looked at it from the stereotypical perspective, where ‘Man needs to be more successful than Wife!’

“But I wanted to get better, I wanted to catch up with her.”

“It took some time, I worked really hard and so a few years in I started to make a move. I broke into the top 4 in 2018 and for the next four years I managed to stay there . It was the best patch of my career. I was hardly getting any early losses. I was always making it at least to the semis and major finals.

“Now Raneem and I were in the same rounds almost every tournament, we’re exiting on the same day. Or if she’s winning, I’m still in the final.”

And finally, winning the Worlds

And of course, there was that win, in Qatar, when Mr Momen got the biggest title of them all, the World Championship, in November 2019.

“It was my childhood dream”, recalls the retired Champion.

“I’ve always wanted to win that one. And as a kid, if you’d ask me, that was the only thing I wanted from squash, even if later on, I had other targets, to reach world #1, for example. But my DREAM was holding that trophy.”

So close in 2018

“The year before I won the world’s, I was very close, I reached the final against Ali after beating Mo.
I had the greatest run in that tournament. MO had been a bogeyman for a while, and when I beat him in the semis for the first time in a long time I thought, this is it!

“I had already beaten Ali a few times, and I really thought I was going to win the match that day. 1/1, 13/13, then all of a sudden, I just collapsed. It was one match too far.

“For a moment there, I thought I may have lost my only chance, but I immediately changed my mindset not even the next day, but on the day, I was like, you know what? I just proved to myself this tournament that I can beat several top players back-to-back. I can win big titles. I’m going to focus on trying to win majors and the World Champs in Qatar is in eight months. I’m going to work on that from today.

“That was everything on my mind right there. So I did just that and I had a great summer preparation. My whole summer was perfect.

“And then I started developing niggles beginning of the new the season, and it pissed me off because I did everything right. The pain became very severe after the US Open.”

Not going that well!

“I lost against Joel Makin in Egyptian Open first round! I didn’t lose at that stage of a major in a very, very, very long time. That was 3 weeks before the World Champs in Qatar! It crushed me.

Needless to explain that during the week in Qatar, I was having panic attacks the whole week. I was struggling so much, I couldn’t sleep, and I had a maximum of 3 or 4 hours of sleep per night.

“I was terrified with the idea of losing, which was irrational, as I was asking for a very big thing: winning the World Champs is a huge thing. I couldn’t expect myself to win; and yet, losing was literally not an option for me, putting way too much pressure on myself.

That was my mindset going there. I must win it. It must be mine. And the signs are not there. So how is it going to happen?”

That week in Qatar

“I did not enjoy a single second of this whole week. And especially after I had this match with Abdullah Al Tamimi, the nightmare of a match where he was 2/1 and 6/2 up. He was on his court. He was on song perfect, perfect game plan, perfect execution, 0 errors. He was playing so well and I had no answer.

“But at 6/2 down, when I started to see myself checking out of the hotel and leaving, I went no, this is my dream. I’m not giving up on my dream just like that. I am going to run down every single shot, if he hits the nick, I’m going to go throw myself at it to get it. I’ll try to be aggressive, but I’m not taking any risks. And somehow it worked. I managed to come back, and I won.

“It was a relief because I was out really! When I won that, you know, I had the belief again.”

There would be a new World Champ

“Ali wasn’t there, Mo was out, Karim was out. I got past Diego in the quarters and It was Simon, Paul, Marwan and myself left. One of us would become world champion for the first time and it was all to play for.

“I played Simon in the semis. At 1/0 and 6/2 down in the second, Simon made one mistake, it was the turning point of the match, and I managed to capitalise.

“The day of the final arrived, Paul and I fighting for the biggest title the sport has to offer. I got another chance at achieving my childhood dream.

“Because of the nerves I was dealing with, I needed to run away with the match, I needed to feel secure that I’m in a good position. I mentally couldn’t have handled a close match, I was feeling the pressure buildup weighing me down for months, and it was all coming down to one final match.”

“First game was like that. It was very close, was crazy. We both played really good squash. The quality was super high. I managed to barely win it. And then I ran away with the second and that’s when I truly believed, you know what, today’s a good day. And the crowd helped me so much that day, They helped me win the first game, and eventually run away with the match.

“It was just the perfect day. I could not have wished for a better scenario.”

The Win

“As soon as I won, I obviously started crying and collapsed, not just because I was happy, it was because finally the pressure was off, the pressure was finally over. And I knew I was going to have my first goodnight sleep in months. And that was more of a relief to me than the actual win!
Winning the title, I could not process it at the time because I was just so glad the pressure was finally off.”

“But you don’t know how good it feels until you actually do it. It is even better than you’d expected.
I have enjoyed this win so much for so long because in a squash career, you have so many losses, heartbreaking losses, you would want the wins to counter that. Was the win going to balance it all? Make it all worthwhile?

“It did. I have never been this happy. It made me so happy for so long and it took away all the weight I carried on my shoulders. I didn’t win majors, I won the biggest one, the biggest major on the calendar.

“And I was lucky. Lucky to be one of the guys who won this title because everyone works hard, but sometimes you’re not lucky enough to win this one.

“It was really, really one of the best moments and one of the best phases of my career because if I don’t achieve anything else, at least when I retire, I know I’ve achieved something big and I’d be always proud of that one. It will always be mine.

“No one’s ever going to take it from me.”

Last thoughts

As our chat was coming to an end, it was time to ask how he would like to be remembered.

“My whole career, I focused on two things: first being fully dedicated and committed, giving my maximum, my 100% every single day, every single training, every single match. So that when the day comes, when today comes, which is my first day of retirement, when I look back, I would have 0 regrets”, he stated.

“And the other important thing was that I wanted people to remember me as a player who had integrity throughout my career. That I was a true character, and being true doesn’t mean perfect. I definitely wasn’t perfect, but I showed real emotion the whole time.

“I don’t think I was ever offensive to anyone. I may have had my arguments with the refs sometimes, but I was never disrespectful to any of them. I’ve never had an incident where anyone felt disrespected by me. I don’t think I was fined once by PSA for misconduct my whole career, and that’s something I’m proud of.”

“I’ve had great relationships with all the players. Over the span of 20 years, I hardly had any fallouts with my fellow colleagues. The few times I did, we sorted them out, and I’m retiring today bearing no grudges.

“So this sums up my career. I was true to myself and others, I showed gratitude and respect, and if I were to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. No regrets!”