More on El Sherbini Worlds Hat Trick by Howard Harding
photo courtesy Squashpics.com
July 22, 2013
- Egyptian teenager Nour El Sherbini has become the world's most
successful junior squash player of all-time after winning the WSF
Women's World Junior Championship title for a record third time.
Victory over
compatriot Mariam Ibrahim Metwally in the final of the World Squash
Federation event at the Hasta La Vista Club in the historic city of
Wroclaw in Poland sees the 17-year-old from Alexandria extend the
previous women's double record set by the reigning world number one
Nicol David in 2001, and the twin-title men's record established by
Ramy Ashour - also the current world number one - in 2006.
There was an upset in
the men's final - also an all-Egyptian affair - when No2 seed Karim
Ayman Elhammamy (pictured below with El Sherbini) beat favourite Fares
Mohamed Dessouki in four games to keep the trophy in Egyptian hands for
the eighth year in a row.
El Sherbini is no
stranger to record-breaking achievements in the sport: In August 2009
in India - in her maiden appearance in the World U19 championship - the
unheralded 13-year-old swept through the field to become the youngest
world champion ever.
Two years later she
won the Alexandria International Open in her home city to become the
first U16-year-old to win two WSA World Tour titles.
And, after winning her
second World Junior crown a year ago in Qatar, El Sherbini became the
first player to reach a fourth world junior final on Saturday after
success in the semi-finals in Wroclaw.
The championship
favourite reached the final without losing a game - and faced surprise
opponent Metwally, a 5/8 seed to whom she had dropped a game in the
2012 quarter-finals.
Metwally, a year
younger than Sherbini, had reached her maiden final after upsets over
No2 seed Nouran Ahmed Gohar and last year's runner-up Yathreb Adel, a
3/4 seed.
But El Sherbini,
ranked 11 in the world, could not be stopped: It took just 34 minutes
for the 17-year-old to fulfil her dream, beating Metwally 11-7, 16-14,
11-8 to take the title.
The men's final
brought together the event's top two seeds - with top-seeded Dessouki
not only boasting a world ranking more than 200 places above his
opponent, but a victory over Elhammamy in January's British Junior U19
Open en-route to winning the prestigious title.
But, in a fittingly
dramatic climax to the world individual championships in Wroclaw,
underdog Elhammamy clinched the title 11-8, 11-6, 6-11, 13-11 after 83
minutes.
"I've seen a lot of
squash: PSA, senior team event, everything. But this - this was just
something else," said the Poland Team coach Marcin Kozik afterwards.
"These boys flew around the court. What they did there tonight was
crazy and I absolutely loved it!"
RESULTS: WSF World Junior Squash Championships, Wroclaw, Poland
