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#11 - Road to Paris Squash 2024

Women's draw preview: 3 queens, one crown

We are only 6 days away from the kickoff! La crème de la crème of women’s squash will be at the Cirque d’Hiver-Bouglione, including the three World Tour powerhouses: defending champion Nour El Sherbini, Nouran Gohar and Hania El Hammamy. Can other players pull a giant upset? Here is everything you need to know about the women's draw.


😉 Like last year, for the draw preview items we drew some inspiration from the tennis analyst Gill Gross and his Monday Match Analysis podcast. Here we go…


TOP HALF


👉 Seeds

Nour El Sherbini 🇪🇬 (World No.1), Olivia Weaver 🇺🇸 (#4), Nele Gilis 🇧🇪 (#5), Rowan El Araby 🇪🇬 (#8)

 

👉 Expected quarterfinal lineup

[1] Nour El Sherbini 🇪🇬 🆚 [5] Olivia Weaver 🇺🇸 / head-to-head : 9-0

[8] Rowan El Araby 🇪🇬 🆚 [4] Nele Gilis 🇧🇪 / H2H : 2-2

 

👉 Dark horse

Salma Hany 🇪🇬

 

She may not make as many headlines as other Egyptian female players, but World No.11 Salma Hany has shown great consistency navigated between 7 and 15 in the rankings for more than 5 years. The Alexandria-born ended 2023/24 in nice fashion reaching two Platinum quarter-finals – at El Gouna and the British Open - and clinching the biggest title of her career at the Australian Open. After a late minute withdrawal at the CIB Egyptian Open, she will kick off her campaign in Paris and has an interesting draw, with a possible round of 16 match against World No.8 Rowan ElAraby or former World No.3 Joelle King, and a potential quarterfinal against World No.4 Nele Gilis whom she beat twice towards the end of last season.

 

👉 Upset alert

Sivasangari Subramaniam 🇲🇾 🆚 Sarah-Jane Perry 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 / H2H : 1-4


📅 Sunday September 15, 4pm local time at the Squash Horizon Ticketing 🎫

 

Since Nour El Sherbini, Nouran Gohar and Hania El Hammamy have occupied the top 3 spots, only one player has beaten two of them in the same tournament, and that’s World No.10 Sivasangari Subramaniam en route to her incredible win at the London Squash Classic. This season, the young Malaysian will have to live up to her new status and establish herself as a permanent top 10 member. In the first round, the pressure will be on her rather than on World No.18 Sarah-Jane Perry, whose best years may be behind her but remains a very dangerous customer when her attacking game is on.

 

👉 Early popcorn match

[8] Rowan El Araby 🇪🇬 🆚 Joelle King 🇳🇿 / H2H : 2-1


📅 Sunday September 15, 12pm local time at the Squash Horizon Ticketing 🎫

 

Sidelined for a year due to back and knee injuries, former world number 3 Joelle King made a promising return at the CIB Egyptian Open, bowing in 4 close games against Sivasangari Subramaniam. Having fallen to 60 in the rankings, the Kiwi is using a pegged ranking of 9 to be at the Paris Squash 2024. Her first round is former double World Junior Champion and current World No.8 Rowan ElAraby, who seemed to gain confidence since she’s started training alongside Wael El Hindi in Florida, and that translated into a win over Nouran Gohar at the beginning of 2024. Their last meeting was in the 2023 British Open quarterfinals, and the Kiwi had prevailed in 5 games.


BOTTOM HALF


👉 Seeds

Nouran Gohar 🇪🇬 (#2), Hania El Hammamy 🇪🇬 (#3), Georgina Kennedy 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (#6), Tinne Gilis 🇧🇪 (#7)

 

👉 Expected quarterfinal lineup

[3] Hania El Hammamy 🇪🇬 🆚 [6] Georgina Kennedy 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 / H2H : 7-0

[7] Tinne Gilis 🇧🇪 🆚 [2] Nouran Gohar 🇪🇬 / H2H : 0-3


👉 Dark horse

Amanda Sobhy 🇺🇸

 

Like in the top half of the draw, our dark horse is a former world number 3 coming back to business after being out for a year. Before she ruptured an Achilles for the second time in her career, World No.9 Amanda Sobhy was closing the gap with the Big 3, and no doubt this fierce competitor has every intention of resuming this situation. Her first round clash against World No.14 Satomi Watanabe from Japan is very enticing, and so is her possible round of 16 match with World No.7 Tinne Gilis.


👉 Upset alert

Hollie Naughton 🇨🇦 🆚 Tesni Murphy 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 / H2H : 0-3


📅 Sunday September 15, 5:30pm at the Squash Horizon Ticketing 🎫

 

While remaining around 20 in the world rankings, No.19 World Hollie Naughton has not completely reproduced the level she showed in 2022, clinching a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games as well as reaching the quarters at the CIB Egyptian Open, the only time she did that in a Platinum to date. The Canadian will be in danger in round 1 against World No.30 Tesni Murphy. Similarly to Sarah-Jane Perry, the Welshwoman has went through some physical issues and is no longer at the level that brought her into the top 10 in 2018, but her very high squash IQ makes her a tricky opponent on a good day.


 👉 Early popcorn match

[3] Hania El Hammamy 🇪🇬 🆚 Sabrina Sobhy 🇺🇸 / H2H : 2-2


📅 Sunday September 15, 2:45pm at the Cirque d’Hiver-Bouglione Ticketing 🎫

 

World No.15 Sabrina Sobhy had pulled a big upset at the Paris Squash 2023 ousting World No.3 Hania El Hammamy in the round of 16, something she’d also done at the US Open a year earlier. Although El Hammamy has taken revenge in Hong Kong, the youngest of the Sobhy sisters knows that she possesses the weapons to disturb the Egyptian.


EXPECTED SEMIFINAL LINEUP


We can use the words Big 3 when talking about Nour El Sherbini, Nourn Gohar and Hania El Hammamy because they are merciless indeed. Since Camille Serme's triumph at the ToC in January 2020, no player other than these 3 ladies has won a major title - Platinum, World Championship and World Tour Finals - and that’s a total of 36 tournaments! Therefore it’s likely that we’ll see them on the glass court on semifinal day in Paris, but who’s going to be the other one?

 

👉 [1] Nour El Sherbini 🇪🇬 🆚 [4] Nele Gilis 🇧🇪 / H2H : 7-1

 

If Nour El Sherbini, who ended Nouran Gohar's 29-match winning streak in the CIB Egyptian Open on Friday, is seemingly above the rest of the field in the top half of the draw, it will be a tough battle to grab the other spot in the semis. After her early exit in Egypt last week, Nele Gilis will try and launch her season but there is no doubt that the likes of Rowan ElAraby, Salma Hany or Joelle King are eyeing the last four.

 

👉 [3] Hania El Hammamy 🇪🇬 🆚 [2] Nouran Gohar 🇪🇬 / H2H : 8-17

 

It's probably the fiercest rivalry in women's squash, with 25 clashes over the past 5 years. It reached incredible heights at the end of the 2022/23 season, with three matches going beyond 100 minutes and very tense moments between the two Egyptians, but things calmed down since then. Gohar has had the upper hand recently, winning 8 of their last 11 meetings.

 

📅 Draws as well as match times and venues are available on : https://www.parissquashproject.com/tableau

 


📷 PSA World Tour, Nathan Clarke, Open Squash Nantes

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