El Weleily's Run To Greenwich Open Title Reinforces Her Status As One Of The Most Dangerous Players On Tour
by Bob Hanscom, special to DailySquashReport.com
January 27, 2012 - As most have read, Raneem El Weleily of Egypt won the 2012 $35,000 Glo Greenwich Open last week. This was the second recent WSA Tour victory in America for the 23-year-old, following last September's win at the prestigious Carol Weymuller Open at Heights Casino in Brooklyn, New York.
Raneem's rise to her current WSA world ranking of #7 has been steady since beginning her professional career in May of 2002...nearly ten years ago!
Other major accolades for Raneem include winning the World Junior Championship in 2004 and 2005 - and WISPA's "Young player of year" award in the same years. She was also presented with WISPA's "Most improved player" of the year award in 2011.
The 23 year-old from Alexandria had a great year in 2011, making her top-ten debut, rising five places from #12 in September to #7 in October, which is her current ranking.
Raneem has certainly proved that she is now one of the top players in the world, possessing all the shots any player could wish for. Lack of consistency may be the only thing preventing her from eventually reaching the top. However, that has and will continue to change, for the better!
Raneem's obvious ambition is to become #1 in the world - and with this steady rise, her dream may not be in the too distant future. She is the youngest of the eight top-ranked players in the world by 3, 5, 6, 10 and 12 years, so her time may come sooner than later. Of course, there's that player by the name of Nicol David who may be just one of the little stumbling blocks before she decides to retire.
Skipping the Tournament of Champions (completed last night in New York), Raneem's next event will be the $50,000 Cleavland Classic, where she's seeded #7 and scheduled to meet the unseeded, but former world #2 Natalie Grinham of Holland in the first round of the main draw at 3 p.m. on Sunday, January 29th.
This first-round match could be very challenging for both of these players...the 33 year-old former #2 coming back from giving birth to her first child, against the up-and-coming (ten years younger) 23 year-old. Better stay tuned for that one!
Raneem El Weleily, runner-up to the now retired former
world #1 Natalie Grainger at the 2007 EBG LA Open
Graph of Raneem's nearly ten-year ranking record
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2012 7
2011 11 11 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 7 8 7
2010 21 18 15 16 17 15 14 11 10 10 11 11
2009 20 19 19 20 19 19 19 18 20 20 20 21
2008 23 24 24 24 22 24 26 26 25 23 23 19
2007 23 24 25 25 23 23 23 23 23 23 24 23
2006 36 35 30 30 31 35 30 30 23 21 23 23
2005 35 47 44 43 46 44 43 47 47 47 44 39
2004 74 39 42 43 40 38 39 34 32 34 36 37
2003 92 87 86 85 96 99 85 87 79 79 79 85
2002
105 103 100 100 101 105 103 91
Back To Main
