It is going to be an all-Egyptian final as third seed Yahya Elnawasany and fourth seed Mohamed ElSherbini reached the final of the McMillan Goodfellow Classic 2026 at the Toronto Athletic Club in Canada on Friday night.
Top seed Greg Lobban was up first on the night as he faced an in-form Elnawasany in the Copper event, looking to reach only his second final since 2021. Lobban’s attritional style of play had already seen him play two long matches to reach the final four but as the opening game began, it looked as though the crowd would be treated to another lengthy affair.
With both players hitting well to the back of the court and moving strongly, outright winners were hard to come by. Lobban managed this the better of the two in the first game and tidied up loose situations caused by Elnawasany to take game one 11-9. The No.3 seed started to increase the pace and intensity from game two onwards, volleying more often, hitting harder and taking more risk than Lobban, who was starting to find life difficult on the court.
The Egyptian produced three top-quality games to win 11-6, 11-5, 11-6, downing the No.1 seed and moving on to a second final of the season in Toronto.
His opponent in the final will be No.4 seed Mohamed ElSherbini, after he also needed four games to defeat No.2 seed and former British Open champion Miguel Rodriguez.
The Egyptian started in superb style, storming through the opening game to win 11-4 in no time at all. ‘The Colombian Cannonball’ responded in strong fashion, forcing errors from ElSherbini’s racket and equalised with an 11-6 score line. Two lengthy games followed from that point, which you thought would have favoured Rodriguez, this wasn’t the case, as the former World No.15 peaked for the big points and closed the games out 11-7, 11-9 to advance to the final, a first since October 2023.
Results (semifinals): 3-Yahya Elnawasany (EGY) beat 1-Greg Lobban (SCO)3-1: 9-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-6 (74m); 4-Mohamed ElSherbini (EGY) beat 2-Miguel Rodriguez (COL) 3-1: 11-4, 6-11, 11-7, 11-9 (70m).
