Sports Bulletin Report
Cairo (Egypt): As many as 18 countries will take part in the World Squash Federation (WSF) Women’s World Team Squash Championship, which will be held from December 10 to 16 this year 2022 at Cairo’s Madinaty Sports Club Egypt.
It is important to mention here that this premier international squash tournament in the women’s game was postponed in 2018 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The Women’s World Team Squash Championships is a biennial international tournament which sees four-player squads from each country face it out in best-of-three-match clashes.
Besides hosts and defending champions Egypt, Australia, Canada, Chinese Taipei, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Malaysia, Scotland, South Africa, Switzerland, Ukraine, United States of America (USA), Wales will fight for top honour in the 7-day international squash showpiece.
Hosts and defending champions Egypt will go in as strong favourites. Three of the four players who won the Dalian 2018 tournament still play at the highest level, with Nouran Gohar ranked World No.1, Nour El Sherbini ranked World No.2 and Nour El Tayeb ranked World No.6.
22-year-old Hania El Hammamy is expected to add to the reigning champions’ already considerable firepower, with the World No.3 beginning the 2022/23 PSA World Tour season with a win at the Platinum-level CIB Egyptian Open.
Joining Egypt as a fancied team will be England, beaten finalists in 2018 and winners of this year’s European Team Championship. Since the 2-0 defeat to Egypt in China, England have added a number of young and dangerous players to the squad, including Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Gold medallist Georgina Kennedy, who took the squash world by storm last year as she rose from World No.185 in May 2021 to World No.8 in July 2022.
Also, tipped as a team to watch is the USA. Team USA’s best-ever finish was fifth in 2018, 2016, and 2014, but this year will have a number of the game’s top players to choose from, including World No.4 Amanda Sobhy, World No.11 Olivia Fiechter, World No.18 – and younger sister of Amanda – Sabrina Sobhy, and World No.20 Olivia Clyne.
In an exciting addition, Chinese Taipei and Ukraine will make their World Team Championship debut, while former World No.2 Camille Serme – who retired from the PSA World Tour in June 2022 – is set to make a competitive return to the sport for the France team..
