Rod Martin has dismissed any suggestion that World No.1 Nouran Gohar will suffer from a British Open hangover when she treads the board at the PSA World Championships in Chicago.

Gohar had been in imperious form in Birmingham sweeping all before her in straight games and barely breaking into oxygen debt to take the court at The Rep, an odds-on favourite to beat Nour El Sherbini and reclaim the title she won previously in 2019.

Yet just 42-minutes later she left the court inconsolable after apparently suffering from a squash form of stage-fright and with the World Championships, the only major title Gohar has failed to win, now upon us, the great Aussie, himself a former World Champion in 1991, has faced the unenviable prospect of putting the pieces back together.

Yet, Martin has confirmed that there has been a silver lining to the dark clouds of despair that enveloped Gohar in Birmingham. He said: “I’ve been a player myself and lost plenty of big finals and basically you are too hard on yourself from a lot of respects – until you go back over the tape at a bit of distance from the event.

“We did that a few days after the (British Open) final and some of the things Nouran spoke about and how she felt and what she perceived was happening were not reality. Once we went through these things she could see that she shouldn’t have been doing or thinking that.

“So it has been pretty easy to get her in the right frame of mind. Her perceptions of what was going on in that match were not real and it has not been difficult to get Nouran in a positive place mentally going forward.

“I think Nouran has learned a lot from that and if there is such a thing as a good loss then that would be it. There was a lot to analyse with what went on in the match and the lead up, her mind set and things like that.

“So it’s all positive from my point of view even though at the time, sitting there watching it wasn’t great but you have to look at these things, learn and take some positives. The key point is we have learned.”

Martin also believes that in making the final without dropping a game against Melissa Alves, Nele Gilis, SJ Perry and Joelle King, Gohar may have arrived at her denouement with El Sherbini under cooked.

In Chicago, with Amanda Sobhy and Hania El Hammamy barring her way, that is not likely to be the case. And Martin said: “One of the problems in Birmingham was that Nouran was hitting the ball really well and feeling very good about her game and playing her best squash and that meant that the matches in the early rounds were just a little easy.

“There was no adversity to deal with and she just steamrolled through the players she beat and that is not a good thing. You need at least one match where you have to fight, think about what you are doing and deal with some tough moments and that just didn’t happen.

“People may say that was a good thing as she was fresh but I think it played against her in the final. She almost went in there thinking: ‘I am hitting the ball well, playing well, it’s all good,’ and when it didn’t go her way it played on her mind and she got anxious about it too early in the match.

“For me the harder the better. Nouran is one of the fittest players on tour, if not the fittest so why would she be worried about a tough match with someone?

“She backs it up every day in training so it will be a benefit to Nouran having someone who will challenge her early on.

“If she has to think through things and handle adversity that is all good but there is no guarantee you will beat anyone in sport. You have to be switched on and I am not taking any of these players lightly.

“Every match is one she can lose and we need to make sure that does not happen.”

Of course Gohar has already lost the last two World Championship finals – to El Sherbini – while Chicago, where she lost the 20/21 final to her compatriot, is not necessarily a happy hunting ground for The Terminator.

All of which might lead to concerns of a repeat of her tragedy at The Rep. The Aussie super-coach is confident that will not be the case and he straight-batted any concerns that the heavy burden of self-expectancy may causing the World No.1 to self-destruct when it matters the most in the game’s major finals.

Martin, the only man to beat Jansher and Jahangir Khan in the same tournament en route to that 1991 World Championship, added: “The World Open is different as it’s the one event she really wants to win with it being the one event she hasn’t won. So it’s going to mean a lot over these next few days to get her in the right frame of mind.

“In terms of the other finals? Well, okay, she lost 3-0 in the British final but the other finals it was 11-9 in the fifth to Sherbini and El Hammamy and these finals have been great matches and her opponent has just ended up playing a little better on the day. But she gave herself a chance to get there and play in these finals.

“So I do not think that she has a problem converting as she has converted in other major tournaments.

“I would also say in some respects, and I was talking to Rob Owen about this, and we both agreed that the British has lost some of its lustre. People used to perceive it as ‘the’ tournament but over the last five or six years I don’t know if it has been seen as that.

“You look at the US Open, ToC, Black Ball, El Gouna, all those for the players are just as important as the British.

“So you can’t say the tournament itself has created a problem for Nouran to win it. She has competed well but on the day it didn’t happen but I don’t think it is anything special about what she does or doesn’t do in finals.”