Youngest champion defends title in El Gouna
By NATHAN CLARKE
Defending champion Nour El Sherbini has been seeded number one for the Orascom Development PSA Women’s World Championship which will take place at the Egyptian Red Sea Resort of El Gouna from April 7-14, 2017.
El Sherbini, who in 2016 became the youngest World Champion ever when she recovered from 0-2 down to beat Laura Massaro, is scheduled to begin the defence of her title against a qualifier in round one before potentially facing in-form Englishwoman Sarah-Jane Perry in the quarter-finals.
The winner is seeded to meet hard-hitting 19-year-old World No.4 Nouran Gohar or Nicol David, the iconic Malaysian who will be bidding for a record ninth World title.
The 33-year-old David won the last World Championship to be staged on Egyptian soil – when she came from match ball down to inflict misery on home club favourite Raneem El Welily in 2014 – and having claimed her first title in over a year at the recent Ciudad de Floridablanca, the most lucrative South American tournament ever, she will be a dangerous contender to El Sherbini.
The bottom half of the draw sees Camille Serme, winner of both the U.S. Open and Tournament of Champions, seeded to meet El Sherbini in the title-decider. But with the likes of El Welily, 2013 champion Massaro and World No.10 Alison Waters – who moves up to the number eight seed following American Amanda Sobhy’s recent season-ending injury – standing in the way, the path to glory is fraught with danger.
A total of nine Egyptian players will look to delight the local crowd when the action gets underway on April 7 while a total of seventeen nations will be represented across the draw.
“We are very excited to be bringing the biggest tournament on the women’s calendar to El Gouna and look forward to welcoming the best players in the world here next month for what promises to be highly competitive event,” said tournament director, Amr Mansi.
Orascom Development PSA Women’s World Championship 2017,El Gouna, Egypt:
First Round Draw:
[1] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) v [Qualifier]
[Qualifier] v [16] Tesni Evans (WAL)
[14] Victoria Lust (ENG) v [WC] Zeina Mickawy (EGY)
[Qualifier] v [7] Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG)
[6] Nicol David (MAS) v Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND)
[Qualifier] v [10] Annie Au (HKG)
[11] Nour El Tayeb (EGY) v [Qualifier]
Nadine Shahin (EGY) v [4] Nouran Gohar (EGY)
[3] Raneem El Welily (EGY) v Jenny Duncalf (ENG)
Line Hansen (DEN) v [15] Donna Urquhart (AUS)
[9] Joelle King (NZL) v Heba El Torky (EGY)
Mariam Metwally (EGY) v [5] Laura Massaro (ENG)
[8] Alison Waters (ENG) v [Qualifier]
[Qualifier] v [12] Joshna Chinappa (IND)
[13] Emily Whitlock (ENG) v [Qualifier]
Salma Hany Ibrahim (EGY) v [2] Camille Serme (FRA)
Picture courtesy of PSA