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




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