Biography
In just
four years on the WSA World Tour, Nour El Sherbini has risen a remarkable 208
places in the women’s rankings to occupy the world No.7 spot by the tender age
of 16-years-old. Many players spend
years battling through competitions but the rate at which Sherbini has
progressed to a world-beating standard has without doubt thrown down the
gauntlet to Nicol David for the next couple of years.
Her first
professional competition came in the Heliopolis Open as a qualifier, and made
it through to the first round. The
following January she won the British Junior Under 19’s Open at the age of
fourteen, at which point she had already broken into the world’s top50. She returned to Heliopolis in 2010 to claim
her first WSA title at the event in which she had made her debut the year
before. The following year, still
rapidly climbing the rankings and sitting at No36, she won the Alexandria
International Open as 5th seed and finished off the year by reaching
round two of the World Open as a qualifier.
So far in
2012 the signs have continued to look good for the Egyptian starlet after
semi-final appearances in Tournament of Champions in New York, as well as in
the KL Open in Malaysia. These results
tipped Sherbini into the Top20 mix, but undeterred by the daunting prospect of
facing the big names in the tour, she stunned Londoners at the O2 Arena by
reaching the final of the WSA World Series Platinum Allam British Open event,
only quelled by the current queen of the women’s game Nicol David.
Following
her British Open foray, Sherbini reached the semi-finals of the Carol Weymuller
Open as seventh seed, but will be disappointed in her first round exit of the
US Open in October, despite opponent Joelle King progressing to the semi’s, and
her second round exit in the World Open at the hand of experienced Madeline
Perry.
2013
couldn’t have started better for the teenager as she claimed her third WSA
title following a strong Greenwich Open campaign, which boosted her ranking
back up to No.4 in the world. She also
managed a respectable Cleveland Classic quarter-final finish to keep the pressure
on the WSA Rankings leaders, but lost to Alison Waters in the KL Open, allowing
the Englishwoman to steal No.4 in the rankings. She collected her 3rd World Junior title, becoming the first player to ever do so. Injury saw Sherbini withdraw from a number of tournaments in the second half of 2013 and she wouldn't compete for the rest of the year.
Sherbini began 2014 with a first round loss in Cleveland and losing out in the Greenwich Open quarter finals. In March, she turned things round in a big way by becoming the youngest player to ever reach the World Championship final in Penang. She stunned Nicol David in the semi final before losing a thrilling final to Laura Massaro. Sherbini followed this up with her fourth and largest WSA title at the Texas Open. Most recently at the British Open, Sherbini was upset in the opening round by Emma Beddoes.