Raneem Romps To Alexandria Title by Howard Harding
photos Steve Cubbins
June 11, 2015
- Raneem El Welily emphatically boosted her bid to become the next
women's world number one when she despatched fellow Egyptian Omneya
Abdel Kawy in straight games in the final of the Alexandria
International in her home city of Alexandria to claim the 10th WSA
World Tour squash title of her career.
It was an impressive performance by the Alexandria-born 26-year-old who
has held second place in the WSA world rankings throughout this year
and is enjoying the best form of her life with final berths in all but
one of her last seven Tour appearances.
El Welily, who admitted to be "struggling" with her game early in the
event, regrouped in magnificent style in the WSA International 100
event at Bibliotheca Alexandrina to overcome both British Open champion
Camille Serme and former world champion Laura Massaro to reach her 25th
Tour final on home soil.
It took just 35 minutes for the No.2 seed to beat surprise opponent
Abdel Kawy (pictured above with El Welily, right) - the seventh seed
who sensationally ended a 24-match losing run to beat Malaysia's world
number one Nicol David in the semi-finals.
Undoubtedly spurred on by the packed and partisan Bibliotheca
Alexandrina crowd, El Welily defeated her Cairo-born opponent 11-6,
11-5, 11-9.
"Very happy with this win," El Welily told the event website www.alexandriainternationalsquash.com later. "I'm very grateful.
"I couldn't have done it without my people, those around me this week,
my husband, my family, the whole family - my coaches Ahmed Faragallah
and Basem Makram who came to be with me, but mostly my coach who
couldn't be here this week, Haitham Effat. This one goes out to you!"
El Welily's latest triumph in the $100,000 Alexandria International
marks the third biggest WSA Tour title of her career. But her two
biggest were also this year - the $118,000 Tournament of Champions in
January and the $150,000 Windy City Open in March.
