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El Sherbini tops draw ahead of World
Championship title defence
Defending champion Nour El Sherbini has been seeded
number one for the Orascom Development PSA Women's World
Championship which will take place at the Egyptian Red Sea
Resort of El Gouna from 5th to 14th April, 2017.
El Sherbini, who in 2016 became the youngest World Champion ever
when she recovered from 0-2 down in the final in Malaysia to
beat Laura Massaro, is scheduled to begin the defence of
her title against a qualifier in round one before potentially
facing in-form Englishwoman Sarah-Jane Perry in the
quarter-finals.
The winner of that group is seeded to meet hard-hitting
19-year-old world #4 Nouran Gohar or Nicol David,
the iconic Malaysian who will be bidding for a record ninth
World title. 33-year-old David won the last World Championship
to be staged on Egyptian soil - when she came from four match
balls down to inflict misery on host club Wadi Degla favourite
Raneem El Welily in 2014.
The bottom half of the draw sees Camille Serme, winner of
both the U.S. Open and Tournament of Champions, seeded to meet
El Sherbini in the title decider.
But with the likes of El Welily, 2013 champion Massaro and world
#10 Alison Waters - who moves up to the number eight seed
following American Amanda Sobhy's recent season-ending injury -
standing in the way, the path to glory is fraught with danger.
 A
total of nine Egyptian players - and potentially more with eight
qualifying places to be filled -will look to delight the local
crowd when the main draw action gets underway on April 7th,
while a total of seventeen nations will be represented across
the draw.
"We are very excited to be bringing the biggest tournament on
the women's calendar to El Gouna and look forward to welcoming
the best players in the world here next month for what promises
to be highly competitive event," said tournament director,
Amr Mansi. |
