The Women’s World Squash Championship took place last week in front of the magical Pyramids of Giza in Egypt for the first time since 2006. Regarded as one of the best venues on the Professional Squash Tour, the Pyramids of Giza have witnessed several Platinum events for both the men’s and women’s tours. It is safe to say that every junior squash player dreams of playing in front of such a venue. Egypt has been a powerhouse in squash throughout the years where several major professional tournaments took place in Cairo and Alexandria. Nonetheless, the ministry of Egyptian tourism has been engaged and determined to organize more professional athletic events by the Pyramids of Giza.

Nour El Sherbini, an Egyptian native and current world number 4, was able to claim her fourth world championship title after a tight match with her long-time rival Raneem El Welily who is the current world number 1 and an Egyptian native as well.

El Sherbiny celebrated her 24th birthday while playing against El Welily and said “I think because today is my birthday and I was making sure not to be sad. I was very relaxed and it took a lot of pressure off thinking about the messages and not focusing on the match.”

El Sherbini dethroned El Welily in a four-gamer thrilling match (11-4, 9-11, 11-5, 11-6) that portrayed a high level of squash from two world class players. They both have met on court and played a total of 23 matches against each other. Going head to head, they were tied with each  winning a total of 11 matches against the other.  

“We are very happy to have this tournament back and playing in front of the pyramids was always a dream of mine and I would really like to thank I-Events, Amr Mansi and his team and especially CIB for hosting and helping the women’s game get bigger and give the women the chance to have a prize money bigger than the men’s. They are not my sponsors but they work hard for the sport, they need to be thanked,” El Sherbiny added. 

They say it’s a mystery how the pyramids were built, but I think the biggest mystery remains the question of how Egyptians are still able to conquer squash across the world!