2010 El-Kersh Women’s Heliopolis Open: Nour El-Sherbini the little ‘big’ winner
At the tender age of fourteen, Nour El-Sherbini became the youngest squash title winner on the Women’s tour. When she was thirteen years old she made history by becoming the youngest ever junior squash World Champion. Now she has won the Women’s Heliopolis
Open in Cairo, Egypt.
The young professional was made to face Australia’s Rachel Grinham in the championship final. Aged 33, Grinham has remained World no. 1 in her career. The squash player seemed to have been going for her 31st career title until things took a downward
turn for her.
As the match started off, Rachel took the first set 11 points to 6. Proceeding further, the second set went in favour of the Aussie as she defeated El- Sherbini 11 points to 9. Grinham was a point up in the third set until she was made to concede at 6 points
to 5.
What had appeared to have been a muscle strain in the left calf of the Australian professional, lead to Grinham’s forfeit. In the words of Rachel herself, “I thought I’d better not continue as it might be worse”. She further went on to state that she’d
know what the situation is like by the next day.
After Grinham’s forfeit, El- Sherbini topped India’s Anaka Alankamony’s record. At the age of fifteen, Alankamony clinched the 2009 Indian Challenger no. 1 on home-ground to become the youngest ever World Champion.
“It is my first WISPA [Women’s International Squash Players Association] title”, stated Nour. She went on to exclaim that she was sorry for Rachel and wishes her a speedy recovery.
Aged 14, El-Sherbini defeated her Egyptian compatriot, Nour El-Tayeb in the semi-finals of the Heliopolis Open. The 17-year old professional defeated El-Sherbini 11 points to 8 in the first set. However, El-Tayeb’s reign was ended as Nour took the remaining
three sets 11-4, 11-8 and 11-9 in a crisp 42-minute match.
Prior to her semi-final win, Nour defeated Denmark’s Line Hansen for the second time this year. Ranked 29 in the World, Hansen was defeated 12-10, 13-11, 9-11, 12-10 in a 55-minute match against the little Egyptian.
In the words of El-Sherbini, “It was a good match”. She further stated, “Last time I won 3/2, today it is 3/1, and in each game I was 10/8 down and I was able to come back”.
Having already achieved as much as the Egyptian professional has, it seems as though the future is beyond bright for El-Sherbini. Hopefully, the young squash player will rise in terms of her performance and continue to stun the World.
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