Nour El Sherbini, the women's top seed, won her first match at the PSA World Tour finals in Cairo ©Getty Images

Egyptians Nour El Sherbini and Ali Farag, the top seeds in the women's and men's competitions, were among the winners on the first day of the Professional Squash Association (PSA) World Tour finals in Cairo.

Both competitions are being played in a round-robin format and in the first match of the tournament, in women's Group A, El Sherbini beat New Zealand's Joelle King, the eighth seed, 11-9 11-1.

The other match in the group saw third seed Nouran Gohar, the Egyptian, beat England's Sarah-Jane Perry, the sixth seed, 11-7, 12-10.

In the only match of the day in women's Group B, second seed Nour Al Taheb of Egypt beat American Amanda Sobhy, the seventh seed, 11-5, 11-5 in just 17 minutes.

In men's Group A, top seed Farag beat eighth seed Simon Rosner of Germany 12-10, 11-6.

Men's top seed Ali Farag also got off to a winning start on day one of the PSA World Squash Tour finals in Cairo ©Getty Images
Men's top seed Ali Farag also got off to a winning start on day one of the PSA World Squash Tour finals in Cairo ©Getty Images

The other match in the group saw defending men's champion Karim Abdel Gawad, the fourth seed from Egypt, suffer a 9-11, 11-3, 11-5 defeat to the sixth seed Diego Elias of Peru.

In the only match in men's Group B, the final contest of the session, Egyptian second seed Tarek Momen suffered a surprise loss 11-5, 6-11, 11-9 to Wales' Joel Makin, the seventh seed.

The tournament, which features the world’s best eight men and eight women from the 2019-2020 season, features a round-robin format for the first four days of play, with the top two from each group going through to the semi finals.

All group matches and the semi-finals will be played as best-of-three game matches, while the finals will use the best-of-five game format.