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Sun 2nd,
Day Five, Individual Finals |
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Finals:
[1] Mohamed El Shorbagy (Egy) bt [2] Ivan Yuen (Mas)
11/9, 12/10, 11/2 (36m)
Nour El Sherbini (Egy) bt [4] Nour El Tayeb (Egy)
5/11, 11/7, 11/6, 11/5 (31m)
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Shorbagy still the
Champ
Mohamed El Shorbagy is still the world junior champion. The
Egyptian world #17 beat Ivan Yuen in straight games, fending off
a strong challenge from the Malaysian second seed before
storming through the third game to retain the title he won in
Zurich last year.
Sherbini is the youngest ever
An Egyptian double was guaranteed with an all-Egypt girls'
final, and history was made when Nour El Sherbini came from a
game down to beat compatriot Nour El Tayeb, becoming the
youngest junior girls' world champion, beating Nicol's record by
well over two years ..
Photo gallery & video clips to follow ...... |
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[1] Mohamed El Shorbagy
(Egy) bt [2] Ivan Yuen (Mas)
11/9, 12/10, 11/2 (36m)
Shorbagy still the Champion
It was a repeat of their British Junior Open final earlier in
the year, and it was the same result. Ivan Yuen pushed the
defending champion for two games, really pushed him.
Both started the match playing patient, long squash, content to
feel each other out and wait for the opening. And it was pretty
even, Shorbagy generally in front, but never by much. He reached
game ball at 10-8, tinned the next shot, then won a humungous
rally to take the lead.
Ivan took a great start to the second, 5-0, although in truth
Shorbagy gifted him that lead with four tins. The Egyptian
tightened up, started to peg back the lead, eventually levelling
at 9-all. By now he was hitting the ball ferociously hard, and
Ivan was struggling to stay in the rallies, being stretched to
the limit.
Shorbagy again to to ten first, hit the tin to lose that chance,
won another monster rally to get to 11-10 then punched away
another winner to double his lead.
And that was that really, the third was no contest. Shorbagy
started with two stunning nick winners, Ivan, under pressure on
every shot, tinned the next four. It was all over very quickly,
no wild celebrations from the Egyptian camp, just great
satisfaction at a job well done.
 "I’m
really happy to win this WJ. This is year was much harder than
the last one. I can just say that this is was my hardest week
ever I had in my life. I just couldn’t sleep properly for one
day, so I’m really glad that I won the tournament.
"Me and Ivan had a very tough first two games today and I was
really glad to win them. He is a very good player and very fair
and I’m sure he’ll get to the top in psa very quickly if he
keeps training hard.
"I would like to thank my dad and my mum a lot, they did really
a lot for me and winning this title again, it’s just a small
thing I can do for them.
"Jonah, he is a very special man to me, he did a lot for me in
the past three years and without him I would have never dreamed
to do what I have done till now in squash. He taught me lots of
things and I’m still learning every day from him something new.
He has so much of experience and he gave me so much from his
experience. He is sooooo special for me and he’ll always be.
 "I
came back to Egypt one month before the WJ and I was training
with Amir Wagih. He was taking me every day and giving me every
day a session at eight in the morning I really worked hard with
him before the tournament, so thanks to him so much too.
Whenever I’m back in Egypt I always go and train with him.
"I would like to thank the Egyptian squash federation too. They
really understand how to make the players concentrate during the
tournament and they do everything for us, so I have to thank
Assem Khalifa a lot.
"I have still one more junior tournament, which is the British,
and then I’ll be done with the juniors and I really want to
finish my junior career with a win so hopefully I can win that
again.
"Anyways it was my last WJ title, really happy to do it like
Ramy and win it twice and hopefully it’s going to be an Egyptian
next year who wins it."
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"So happy, and so proud.
"Nour's been playing since she was six, we knew she was a talent
and thought she might be able to win the British Junior Open a
few times, and she's won that three times already.
"But I never would have believed I would see this moment, world
champion already ... but then, she likes breaking records !
Nour's Father
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Nour El Sherbini (Egy) bt
[4] Nour El Tayeb (Egy)
5/11, 11/7, 11/6, 11/5 (31m)
The 13-year-old World Champion
All the talk at the start of the day was "would she be the
youngest ever if she won?" Searching through the stats of the
previous twelve winners said yes. Nicol David won it just short
of her 16th birthday, Nour El Sherbini is four months shy of her
14th, so emphatically, yes.
 But
those stats looked like being redundant after the first game.
Nour El Tayed seemed to have a plan, bringing Shernini to the
front, then despatching the ball to the back for a winner.
And it worked like a dream, giving her the first game 11/5 with
Sherbini unable to get into the match.
And so it continued into the second, Tayeb built a 6-2 lead and
Sherbini seemed to have no answer.
But then something changed. Perhaps Tayeb was hitting it looser,
perhaps Sherbini found the answer, I couldn't tell. But what was
obvious was that for the first game and a half Sherbini couldn't
get onto the 'T', for the next two and a half games Tayeb simply
couldn't get her off it.
And if you give Sherbini time on the ball on the 'T' you're
dead, her drops, volley-drops and volley-kills are deadly, and
she started using them to great effect.
She stormed back to take the second, and raced through the third
and fourth. Now it was Tayeb who didn't have any answers.
Sherbini was simply too good, simple as that.
"I'm so happy!
"After losing the first I remembered how I came back when I was
down against Heba, and that gave me the belief I could do it
again. I kept telling myself I could do it, and I did!"
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Finals Day in Chennai ... preview
We're down to the finals, and a world championship beckons for
four young hopefuls.
 Mohamed
El Shorbagy has been here before, winning the title last
year in Zurich, and at the time never expected a chance to
defend the title. The WSF's decision to run the championships
annually (a biannual event is intrinsically unfair on 50% of
players, who don't get the chance in their 'best' year) gave him
the opportunity to become only the second player to win it twice
(after Ramy Ashour).
In January the Egyptian, already ranked #17 in the world,
successfully defended his
British Junior Open title, but he found defending it harder
than winning it the first time. His opponent in the final in
Sheffield is the same as today's, Malaysian Ivan Yuen.
Ivan won the
Asian
Junior Championship here in Chennai later in January, and
has been playing well here, so a good final looks in store.
While the boys' final features the top seeds, the girls' final
is one that few would have predicted, unless you knew the
players involved.
 Nour
El Tayeb has won the British Junior Open at U13, U15 and U17
levels, and has been preparing for these championships since
winning in January in Sheffield. She didn't play in the
ATCO Junior Open
in May, although she was there throughout the event. "I'm
training ... for the worlds," she said then.
So it may have been a great disappointment for the hosts when
she beat top seed Dipika Pallikal yesterday in the semis, but it
wasn't as great a surprise as the seedings suggested.
 In
the ATCO Junior Nour El Sherbini came of age. How can you
come of age at 13, you may ask, but she truly did come of age in
squash terms, reaching the final of the WISPA event (becoming
the youngest ever WISPA finalist) and so nearly beating Engy
Kheirallah, who has been #14 in the world, in that final.
On the way she beat Heba El Torky, seeded two here, in straight
games, and she beat Heba again in the quarter-finals here,
although she had to save two match balls before doing so.
So she may be unseeded, but she's won the British Junior Open
every time she's entered (three titles and counting), and
there's nothing to suggest she can't become the youngest ever
world champion (and she has five more chances at it).
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Draws & Results
Photo Galleries
Extras #3
Worst Nightmare,
Guess Who, Gridlock
On the Blog
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