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6th
ANNUAL WORLD SQUASH AWARDS
HEAD TO GRAND CENTRAL |
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World Squash Awards Recognize
Outstanding 2010 Players
 A
glittering and glamorous crowd gathered on Thursday evening,
January 20, in the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions Grand
Central Terminal tournament venue for the fifth annual World
Squash Awards Dinner to honor the best and brightest stars,
both past and present, of the squash world.
 J.P.
Morgan Tournament of Champions second seed Nick Matthew
received Player of the Year honors and seventh seed
Mohammed El Shorbagy was recognized as Young Player of
the Year while US squash icon Mark Talbott and
renowned artist Frank Stella were recognized for
their contributions to the sport.
 Talbott,
who dominated North American Squash with a 12-year reign as
the hemisphere’s #1 ranked player and now coaches at
Stanford University, received the Lifetime Achievement
Award. Stella was honored with a Special Services to Squash
Award for his role in promoting the professional squash
tournament circuit in the 1980s and spearheading the
conversion of hardball singles to softball squash, paving
the way for the current squash boom in the US.
“It is especially fitting that Mark and Frank were honored
as each of them played a significant role in the sport’s
explosion in popularity here in the US in the 1980s,” said
J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions director John Nimick,
co-host of the gala dinner with the World Squash Awards
director and three-time Tournament of Champions titleholder
Peter Nicol.
 Malaysia's
Nicol David received her sixth WISPA Player of the
Year Award. Undefeated in 2010, David has occupied the top
spot in the world rankings for six consecutive years.
Australia's Kasey Brown, a 2010 Commonwealth Games
triple medal winner who cracked the top 10 for the first
time in 2010, was Most Improved Player of the Year.
 Nour
El Tayeb, the 17-year-old Egyptian who rose from 42 to
17 in the WISPA world rankings in the past 12 months, was
named Young Player of the Year.
The PSA award winners had equally remarkable playing seasons
in 2010. Matthew had a six month undefeated run in 2010 and
reclaimed the world #1 this month. El Shorbagy, who just
finished his final school exams for the semester last week,
jumped from 31 in the world rankings a year ago to his
current standing at the #9 spot.
Players from the professional hardball doubles squash tour
(the ISDA) received recognition for the first time at these
World Squash Awards. Philadelphia native Greg Park,
one of two Americans in the top 16, was delightfully
surprised to receive Rookie of the Year honors. It came as
no surprise that the ISDA Team of the Year was Australian
Damien Mudge and Canadian Viktor Berg. Ranked #1
for the 2010 season, the team has a total of 17 tour
victories in their hree playing seasons together. Mudge has
occupied the top of the rankings for 12 seasons and has won
100 ISDA titles.
The World Squash Awards were founded in 2005 by Eventis
Sports Marketing and are endorsed annually by the World
Squash Federation (WSF), the Professional Squash Association
(PSA) and the Women's International Squash Players'
Association (WISPA). The World Squash Awards Gala Dinner was
presented by Lexington Partners.
World Squash Awards Honorees
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Nour El Tayeb - WISPA
2010 Young Player of the Year
Kasey Brown - WISPA 2010 Most Improved Player of the
Year
Nicol David - WISPA 2010 Player of the Year
Mohamed El Shorbagy - PSA 2010 Young Player of the
Year
Nick Matthew - PSA
2010 Player of the Year
Greg Park - ISDA 2010 Rookie of the Year
Damien Mudge & Viktor Berg - ISDA 2010 Team of the
Year
Frank Stella - Services To Squash Honoree
Mark Talbott - Lifetime Achievement Honoree
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World Squash Awards 2010,
the Nominations ...
Egypt's Ramy Ashour and Englishmen Nick Matthew
and James Willstrop - winners of eight 2010 PSA Super
Series titles between them - have been nominated for the
PSA Player of the Year award at the 2010 World Squash
Awards this week.
Ashour and Matthew each held the world's top ranking last
year, with the Englishman wresting it back this month after
becoming world champion for the first time in December.
Willstrop is returning to New York this week to defend the
JP Morgan Tournament of Champions crown he won last year.
The PSA nominations for Young Player of the Year include
Aamir Atlas Khan (Pakistan), Mohamed El Shorbagy
(Egypt) and Karim Abdel Gawad (Egypt).
"After one of the most successful years in our history,
competition for our two awards is fiercer than ever," said
PSA CEO Alex Gough.
Malaysia's Nicol David is in line to become Player of
the Year for the sixth year in a row according to the WISPA
nominations.
But the 27-year-old from Penang, who began her sixth year at
the top of the WISPA World Rankings this month, will face
still competition from former Dutch winner Vanessa
Atkinson and Australia's Kasey Brown, winner of
three medals in last year's Commonwealth Games.
The full list of WISPA nominees (in alphabetical order) is
as follows:
Player of the Year:
Vanessa Atkinson (Netherlands)
Kasey Brown (Australia)
Nicol David (Malaysia)
Young Player of the Year:
Nour El Sherbini (Egypt)
Nour El Tayeb (Egypt)
Amanda Sobhy (USA)
Most Improved Player of the Year:
Kasey Brown (Australia)
Nour El Tayeb (Egypt)
Raneem El Weleily (Egypt)
Joelle King (New Zealand)
Low Wee Wern (Malaysia)
The sixth annual World Squash Awards will take place for the
first time in the stunning Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central
Terminal, New York, on Thursday 20th January.
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 The
world’s leading players will be honoured at the sixth annual
World Squash Awards which will take place in the stunning
Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central Terminal, New York,
on Thursday 20th January 2011.
This year’s awards, founded in 2005 by Eventis Sports
Marketing and endorsed annually by the WSF, the PSA and
WISPA, will be presented by Lexington Partners and take
place the night before the J.P. Morgan Tournament of
Champions takes centre stage in the same location
As well as embracing the PSA and WISPA Players of the Year,
in acknowledgement of the North American location, this
year’s awards will also honour the top new player & doubles
team from the ISDA, the American hardball doubles tour.
 Amongst
the favourites for this year’s PSA Male Player of the Year
will be World no.1 Ramy Ashour & Commonwealth Games
Champion Nick Matthew while Malaysia’s World Champion
& World no.1 Nicol David looks like favourite to
maintain her stranglehold on the women’s award.
The glittering gala evening will be hosted by Peter Nicol
MBE & John Nimick, and it has already been confirmed
that special guest Frank Stella will be in attendance
to collect one of this year’s awards. World renowned artist,
Stella was instrumental back in the early 80s for the
conversion of hardball singles to softball squash which
paved the way for the squash boom in the USA.
 Nicol,
Director of Eventis, said “We were delighted when the
opportunity came up to partner with Event Engine and its
signature event the “ToC” on the World Squash Awards and to
take it to such a stunning famous location. Players have
loved playing on the glass court there for many years and it
is a fitting venue for the awards as we look to expand their
profile.”
Individual tickets or tables can be booked by anyone wishing
to attend and Nicol went on to explain “we always see the
event as the chance for people from all walks of squash to
get together, and the great thing about taking the event to
New York is that this year it will involve a whole new raft
of individuals who we are sure will have a great evening and
help it grow in stature.
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The categories
and past winners of the World Squash Awards are:
PSA Male Player of Year
2005 Thierry Lincou, 2006 and 2007 Amr Shabana, 2008
James Willstrop, 2009 Kaim Darwish.
PSA Young Male Player of Year
2005 James Willstrop, 2006 and 2007 Ramy Ashour, 2008
Omar Mosaad, 2009.
WISPA Female Player of Year
2005 Vanessa Atkinson, 2006-2009 Nicol David.
WISPA Female Young Player of the Year
2005 Raneem El Weleily, 2006 Tenille Swartz, 2007 Camille
Serme, 2008 Annie Au, 2009 Nour El Sherbini.
WISPA Female Most Improved Player of the Year
2005 Alison Waters, 2006 Nicolette Fernandes, 2007 Shelley
Kitchen, 2008 Laura Massaro, 2009 Camille Serme.
Services to Squash Award
2007 Dicky Rutnagur, 2008 Jim Quigley, 2009 Andrew
Shelley .
Lifetime Achievement Award
2005 Jahangir Khan, 2006 Jonah Barrington, 2007 Heather
McKay, 2008 Geoff Hunt, Azam Khan and Hashim Khan, 2009 F.D.
Amr Bey. |
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