Congratulations to IWGA Athlete of the Month, Squash World Champion Nour El Sherbini (EGY)! In April 2017, El Sherbini successfully retained her World Championship title - 12 months after becoming the youngest, and first Egyptian, winner of the most prestigious women's title in Squash. In May last year, then 20 years and 6 months old, El Sherbini became the second youngest women's World Number 1 of all-time.
Nour El Sherbini was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt. She started playing squash when she was 6-years-old and was already participating in tournaments before the age of 8. Her brother Omar El Sherbini kept her interested in squash as she would spend time watching him and learning from his sessions. She confirms that sports runs in her family: "My father used to be a football player and a good swimmer. Also my mum was a good athlete".
In August 2009 El Sherbini became the youngest-ever World Junior (U19) champion - aged just 13 - and went on to win the title a record three times.
At the World Championships 2017 final in Egypt, the 21-year-old hit her targets well and never allowed fellow Alexandrian El Welily to get into her game, with El Sherbini closing the win out by an 11-8, 11-9, 11-9 scoreline.
“I’m over the moon, two or three months ago I wouldn’t have imagined that I would have won because I haven’t won a [major] title this season,” said El Sherbini. “It felt like I wasn’t going to win this season anymore, but once I knew that it was going to be in Egypt, I was so excited and I wanted to come and play here. I’m really happy to win in front of my home crowd”
