2018 Players
Nour El Tayeb (Egypt) - World #3
Nour El Tayeb is one of the most consistent female players on the PSA World Tour and a flamboyant crowd favorite, known for her acrobatic diving abilities. She reached the final of the World Junior Championship in 2009 but narrowly lost to compatriot Nour El Sherbini. Her first Tour title came a year later at the Creteil International Open where she became the third youngest Tour title winner after besting home favourite Camille Serme in the final. She finished 2010 in the world's top 20 players while April 2011 brought her second Tour title as she powered past former World Champion Vanessa Atkinson en-route to the Irish Open crown. The Egyptian captured the Atlantis Open in 2012 while 2014 saw her reach successive World Series finals at the Malaysian Open and Hong Kong Open tournaments but she fell to Raneem El Welily and Nicol David, respectively.
A fine run at the US Open almost paid dividends after she shocked then World No.1 El Welily. An injury sustained during her match with El Welily resulted in an enforced six-month spell on the sidelines for El Tayeb.
El Tayeb made her return from injury in the Naza PSA Women’s World Championship in 2015, where she exited at round 2 against Amanda Sobhy.
Tesni Evans (Wales) - World #12
Tesni Evans is the leading Welshwoman on the PSA World Tour with a number of Welsh National titles to her name.
The first came in 2012 when she beat Deon Saffrey in a titanic five-game-thriller and she retained her crown a year later with another triumph over Saffrey.
Saffrey again feel by the wayside in January 2015's iteration of the event but Evans eclipsed those triumphs with her first Tour title in May of that year to power past four Egyptians and capture the Sharm El Sheikh International crown.
After reaching the world’s top 30 the following month, Evans continued to grow on the PSA World Tour, but had to wait until November 2016 for her breakthrough moment as she reached the semi-final of the Wadi Degla Open - her first PSA W50 last four finish - breaking into the world’s top 20 just two months later.
Salma Hany Ibrahim (Egypt) - World #15
Salma Hany Ibrahim is an up-and-coming youngster hailing from Alexandria, Egypt.
She drew a lot of admirers in 2012 and 2013 for a number of impresive performances as she captured three Tour titles over that period. After besting Farah Abdel Meguid in the Konutlari International, Ibrahim went on to secure back-to-back titles at the Sram NSC Series No2 and the Malaysian Squash Tour 8th Leg. Despite suffering something of a trophy drought in the next two years, a number of consistent performances ensured that Ibrahim would break into the world's top 20 for the first time in her career.
Hania El Hammamy (Egypt) - World #20
Hania El Hammamy is a rising force in the women's game and is already a record-breaker despite her tender years. After starring at a number of junior events such as the British Junior Open, El Hammamy became the first person born this century to win a PSA World Tour title, which came at the 42nd Geneva Open in March 2015 with a shock win over Fiona Moverley in the final. At just 14-years-old, El Hammamy became the second youngest PSA World Tour title winner after compatriot Habiba Mohamed. Cairo-born El Hammamy also competed at the 2015 World Junior Championship, making it to the quarter-final before losing out to Mohamed. The young Egyptian then went on to feature in the final of the Jersey Squash Classic in 2016, where she suffered defeat in straight games against England’s Millie Tomlinson. El Hammamy then broke into the world’s top 40 for the first time in the September 2016 World Rankings.
Rowan El Araby (Egypt) - World #31
Rowan Elaraby joined the PSA World Tour in 2016 and went onto lift her maiden PSA World Tour title at the first time of asking. The Egyptian beat Milnay Louw over three games to secure the Gauteng Open at the age of 15. Elaraby then beat Louw once more in her second tournament when she lifted the Keith Grainger Memorial UCT Squash Open to claim back-to-back titles. More silverware followed the year after which saw the young Egyptian claimed the Virginia Squash Racquets Association Richmond Open beating Nicole Bunyan over three games in the final. Elaraby then claimed victory at the Charlottesville Open, beating Danielle Letourneau to the title over five games. Four titles in her first two years on the PSA World Tour saw Elaraby move inside the world’s top 50 for the first time in her fledgling career.
Amanda Landers-Murphy (New Zealand) - World #36
Amanda Landers-Murphy picked up her first Tour title at the New South Wales Open in 2011 and she continued her prolific form in Australia by picking up the South Australian Open in 2012.
The Hitachi Queensland Open title followed later that year before her fifth Tour crown came at the Australia Day Challenge where she bested Liu Tsz-Ling in the final. The Kiwi claimed her first PSA Challenger 10 title at the NT Open in May 2015 to round off a strong season.
Danielle Letourneau (Canada) - World #42
Danielle Letourneau joined the PSA World Tour in 2014. The Canadian finished runner-up in her first final appearance in 2015 at the Livestuff Open when Nele Gilis went onto lift the title. However, the following year Letourneau went on to victory at the Liberty Bell Open to secure her maiden PSA World Tour title when she beat Georgina Stoker. Letourneau then backed this up by lifting the Nash Cup to secure her second PSA World Tour title of that year when she beat Misaki Kobayashi over five games. A handful of runner-up finishes followed in 2017 at both the PSA Women’s Squash Week Open and Charlottesville Open where she lost out to Samantha Cornett and Rowan Elaraby respectively. These high tournament finishes saw Letourneau break into the world’s top 50 for the first time in her career in 2017.
Alexandra Fuller (South Africa) - World #49
Sarah Jane Perry (Engalnd) - World #8
Sarah-Jane Perry made her Tour breakthrough in 2011 as she defeated Tania Bailey in the final of the Manor Open to capture her first Tour title.
Perry picked up her fifth Tour title at the Delaware Open in February 2013 and followed that up with two more title wins before a trophy drought that would last for two years.
However, Perry returned to form in February 2015 and defeated Dipika Pallikal in the final of the Granite Open to claim her first PSA W25 title just weeks after winning her first British National Championship title.
She claimed one of the biggest wins of her career when she defeated Malaysian superstar Nicol David in the quarter-finals of the Al Ahram Open in September 2016 in front of the stunning Great Pyramid of Giza.
Perry went on to make three successive semi-final appearances in the Carol Weymuller Open, J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions and the Cleveland Classic.
England’s Perry also finished runner-up at the British Open, where she came up against fellow Brit, Laura Massaro in the first all-English final since 1991.
Perry also helped England triumph in the women’s final at the European Team Championships.
Victoria Lust (England) - World # 13
England's Victoria Lust has made strong progress in the World Rankings since she joined the tour in 2007. Her ascent drove her into the world's top 30 within a few years with 2012 in particular proving a good year for the Luton-born player as she picked up the NSA Fall Classic crown with a defeat of Tesni Evans. She then went on to record three runner-up finishes in succession before she would be faced to wait until March 2014 to pick up her next title as she defeated Emma Beddoes to lift the Mayfair Open crown.
A solitary title would await Lust in the Abierto Colombiano tournament in August 2015, while she finally broke into the world’s top 20 the following February after prevailing over Nicolette Fernandes in the final of the Granite Open. Lust made the semi-finals of the Netsuite Open but was defeated by fellow Englishwoman Sarah-Jane Perry over three games.
Joshana Chinappa (India) - World #16
A hugely successful junior player, Joshana Chinappa is one of the leading Indian women on the PSA World Tour. She became the first ever Indian player to win a British Junior Open title in 2005 when she took the U19 crown after she already had the distinction of appearing at a Tour final in the Centenary Cup a year earlier. Her first Tour title came at the 2008 NSC Super Satellite No.3 and her second title came just a week later. She won her first Tour title in Europe when she triumphed at the German Ladies Open in 2010 and added the Windy City Open to her trophy cabinet a year later, beating compatriot Dipika Pallikal in the final. 2014 saw Chinappa claim both the Winter Club Women's Open and the Richmond Open before she teamed up with Pallikal to become the first ever Indian players to claim a gold medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Doubles event. July 2016 saw Chinappa break into the world’s top 10 for the first time and she came close to winning the Otters International on home soil, eventually losing out to Hong Kong’s Annie Au. Chinappa also went onto win the Asian Championship in 2017, overcoming fellow Indian Dipika Pallikal Karthik in the final.
Mariam Metwally (Egypt) - World #23
Despite having turned professional a short time ago, Mariam Metwally has already proven that she looks set for a long and prosperous career on the PSA World Tour. After joining the Tour in 2011, Metwally lifted her maiden title in March 2013 at the Swiss Open. She then doubled her tally a year and a half later as she swept to the Open D'Italia crown, beating number three seed Amanda Landers-Murphy in the showpiece final.
Metwally narrowly missed out on qualification for the main draws of the Tournament of Champions and the Windy City Open in early 2015 but she did make an appearance at the Alexandria International to end her campaign where she lost to Omneya Abdel Kawy. Metwally made it to the quarter-finals in the Wadi Degla Open in October 2016, where she lost out to Egyptian compatriot Nouran Gohar in straight games as Gohar sealed her place in the semi-finals.
Nele Gilis (Belgium) - World #33
Nele Gilis is the Belgian No.1 and is the sister of fellow PSA World Tour player Tinne Gilis.
She has shown herself to be an adept competitor at junior events with the German Junior U19 Open, the Europan Junior U19 Championship and the Pioneer Junior U19 Cup all going to the youngster in 2014.
Gilis narrowly missed out on both the London Open and Edinburgh Open titles in 2014 and 2015, losing out to Yathreb Adel and Fiona Moverley, respectively. In 2016 Gilis marched to the final of the Paderborn Open, falling short of clinching the title as Nada Abbas sealed the victory over three games. The Belgian then went one better at the Open International Des Volcans sealing victory with a 3-1 win over Amanda Landers-Murphy leading her to break into the world’s top 40 for the first time that year. The next year Gilis continued her strong form with a win in the final of the Irish Open over five games against England’s Millie Tomlinson.
Zeina Mickawy (Egypt) - World #37
Zeina Mickawy joined the PSA World Tour in 2012 and broke into the world’s top 100 for the first time in her career in 2015.
The Egyptian went onto claim her maiden PSA World Tour title after recovering from a game down to beat Belgian tinne Gilis in the final of the Harrow Ukrainian Squash Cup 3 – the day before her 18th birthday. It was Mickawy’s second PSA World Tour final after reaching the same stage on the previous Ukrainian Cup tournament earlier in the year. Mickawy then went to make back-to-back finals in 2017 – finished runner-up at the Bahl & Gaynor Cincinnati Gaynor Cup where she lost out to Kanzy Emad El Defrawy and the Winnipeg Winter Club Women’s Open where she was beaten to the title by Samantha Cornett.
The Egyptian moved into the world’s top 50 for the first time in 2017.
Haley Mendez (United States) - World #43
Tinne Gilis (Belgium) - World #50
Alison Waters (England) - World #8
Alison Waters has proved to be a fierce competitor since making her Tour debut back in 2000. She lifted her first Tour title at the Forbes Open in 2005 and since then she has been a prolific player at British events. After finishing runner-up in the British National Squash Championships in 2005 and 2007, Waters went on to defeat Laura Massaro in the 2008 final. She lifted another British National Championship crown in February 2010 with a defeat of Jenny Duncalf.
That year was a strong one for Waters who broke into the world's top three for the first time as she made the semi-final or better at every event she played. In 2013, Waters won the Carol Weymuller Open and in 2015 she made the finals of the Tournament of Champions. In 2016, she once again made the finals of the Carol Weymuller Open.
Olivia Clyne (United States) - World #14
Olivia Blatchford first rose to prominence at junior level in 2007 when she won the British Junior Open U-15 event and the United States-based player hasn't looked back since.
She joined the Tour a year previously in 2006 and won her first Tour title in 2010 at the SRC Open in May 2010.
Her first Tour 15 crown came at the Abierto Mexicano de Raquetas where she stunned Siyoli Waters in the final and her first title in Europe, and her fifth overall, was found at the Paderborn Open where she played to her number one seed ranking.
Blatchford appeared in her biggest ever PSA W70 final against legendary Malaysian, Nicol David in March 2017 at the Ciudad de Floridablanca. Blatchford reached the final after Amanda Sobhy’s event was cut short as she tore her achilles whilst on court with Blatchford in the semi-finals.
Amanda Sobhy (United States) - World #18
Charismatic American Amanda Sobhy is one of the leading players on the PSA World Tour and looks set to battle at the top of the World Rankings for years to come. She secured her first Tour title in January 2010 at the Liberty Bell Open and, after following that up with the Delaware State Open and the Racquet Club International, she became the first player to claim three Tour titles as a 16-year-old. In 2010 she became the the first player from the United States to win the World Junior Championship after a defeat of Nour El Tayeb in the showpiece event. Sobhy rounded off the 2014/15 season in style, defeating El Tayeb to lift the Texas Open, her first International 35 title. Sobhy graduated from Harvard University during the 2014/15 season after completing a degree in social anthropology and was named PSA Women's Young Player of the Year in May 2015. The 2015/16 season saw Sobhy cement her status as a top 10 player and she reached her first World Series final in January 2016’s Tournament of Champions, narrowly missing out to Nour El Sherbini in New York. She also qualified for the season-ending PSA Dubai World Series Finals, where she exited at the group stage.
Mayar Hany (Egypt) - World #26
Mayar Hany made her PSA debut in December 2014 at the World Championships where she reached the first round where she lost out to fellow Egyptian Nour El Tayeb.
Born in Cairo, Egypt, she won her first PSA tour title at the Seattle Open in March 2016, Hany beat Line Hansen over four games to clinch her maiden title after overcoming Hollie Naughton, Milou Van Der Heijden and Sarah Cardwell on her way to the final.
Hany also finished runner-up at the Australian Open later that year, where she lost out to India’s Dipika Pallikal Karthik over four games.
Hany made the World’s top 50 in the PSA Women’s World rankings for the first time in December 2016.
Hollie Naughton (Canada) - World #35
Hollie Naughton is an up-and-coming Canadian who has already found success on the Tour since joining in 2012.
Her first title came at the ORC Open in December 2014 where she saw off Maria Toorpakai Wazir in the final. A strong semi-final finish at the Montreal Open in March 2015 saw the Canadian break into the top 60 in the world for the first time in her career. In 2016, Naughton secured the Nicola Wealth Open title when she downed Egypt’s Nada Abbas over three games. A handful of quarter final finishes throughout the rest of the season saw her continue her rise up the World Rankings and break into the top 40 for the first time in her career.
Milou Van Der Heijden (Netherlands) - World #39
Milou van der Heijden joined the Tour in 2007 and has come to the forefront in recent years. It took her five years to capture her first Tour title but she defeated a series of home-grown players to storm to the NT Open crown in May 2012. In February 2014 the Dutchwoman won her first Dutch Nationals title and followed that up with success at the WA Open three months later. She was met with further triumphs in 2015 as she retained her Dutch Nationals title and added the Malaysian Tour Squash II crown to her burgeoning title collection. Heijden finished off 2015 with another title after victory over Cryielle Peltier – who she had finished runner-up to one week prior at the New South Wales Open – in the City of Greater Bendigo International. In 2016, she finished runner-up to Hana Moataz at the Grand Sport Armenia 1st Challenger 5. However, Heijden went onto taste more success, this time at the Val de Marne when she downed Julianne Courtice over three games in the final. Another title came in the form of the Jersey Squash Classic the following year when she beat Lisa Aitken to seal victory and another title.
Julianne Courtice (England) - World #48
Nicole Bunyan (Canada) - World #62
