American number one Amanda Sobhy, the 22-year-old who became the first native-born U.S. citizen to crack the world’s top ten last year, says she is relishing the prospect of competing at the 2016 Windy City Open for the first time in her career this week.

The Harvard graduate has enjoyed a great start to 2016 and reached her first ever PSA World Series final at the J. P. Morgan Tournament of Champions in January, when the support of a partizan US crowd carried her to a series of career-defining wins, and the prospect of competing in front of vocal home support in Chicago again this week is something she is excited about.

"Reaching the finals of the Tournament of Champions in January was a huge confidence booster for me because it made me realise that I have the ability to beat any player in the rankings," said Sobhy.

"I’m looking forward to carrying that momentum with me as I head into the Windy City Open this week - especially because this is the first time that I’ll be able to play in the tournament.

"It has always clashed with the collegiate national championships so I’m excited to be playing this year and hopefully I can have just as good a run over there as I did in New York City.

"The support in New York was amazing and it will be great to play in front of an American crowd again this week."

Sobhy will take on Egyptian Salma Hany Ibrahim in the first round on Thursday as she bids to become the first American player ever to win a PSA World Series title.

World Series heads back to Chicago

The next PSA World Series event, the Windy City Open, is all set to be held in Chicago from 23-Feb to 02-March.

The women’s field is headlined by Laura Massaro, Raneem El Welily and Nicol David, the trio who have dominated the World Series events over the past few years and are currently embroiled in a three-way battle to hold the World #1 ranking spot currently occupied by Massaro - although ToC finalists Nour El Sherbini and Amanda Sobhy will no doubt have hopes of breaking through again.

In the men’s draw top seed Mohamed Elshorbagy will be hot favourite to continue his recent streak of dominance and collect a fourth consecutive World Series tournament and his first Windy City Open crown. England’s Nick Matthew, in form Egyptian Omar Mosaad, and Colombia’s Miguel Rodriguez make up the other top four seeds (Gregory Gaultier and Ramy Ashour were in the original draw, but have since withdrawn.)
 

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