Egyptian squash players witnessed another victorious day on 23 September at the final matches of the 2016 Al-Ahram Squash Open.
The first match of the day took place in the presence of legendary former squash champion Ahmed Barad, Egyptian Squash Association President Assem Khalifa, and Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Khaled Abdel Aziz. The match was between Egyptian players Nour El-Sherbiny and Raneem El-Welily.
El-Welily won the first two games with the scores 11-5 and 11-9. Afterwards, El-Sherbiny came back for revenge, winning the following two games with the scores 11-9 and 11-9. This led to the fifth game being a decisive and tense one. El-Welily managed to surpass her rival, winning the fifth and final match by 11-7. The final result of the match was 3-2 in Raneem’s favour, enabling her to become the female champion of the 2016 Al-Ahram Squash Open.
El-Sherbiny was the first Egyptian to win the Women’s World Squash Championship, and is currently ranked first internationally. However, El-Welily was the first Egyptian woman to be ranked first in squash internationally.
As for the men’s competition, Egyptian player Karim Abdel Gawad defeated his compatriot, Ali Farag, with match scores of 11-4, 11-7, 11-5, and a final score of 3-0. This resulted in Gawad being named the 2016 Al-Ahram Squash Open champion.
