Nour El Sherbini beat Hollie Naughton of Canada in straight sets (Photo: Officiel Twitter account)
Egyptian squash players Nour El-Sherbini, Yathreb Adel and Hania El Hammamy booked their places in the third round of the PSA Women's World Championship on Saturday that takes place in Egypt from 24 October to 1 November, while Nada Abbas and Nadine Shahin were knocked out.
Defending champion and world number 2 Nour El-Sherbini strolled past Canada's Hollie Naughton with a 3-0 win in 26 minutes (12-10, 11-7, 11-4) despite trailing in a couple of sets, setting up a third-round meeting with India's Joshna Chinappa.
World number 14 Hania El Hammamy dominated her Australian opponent Donna Lobban, also achieving victory in straight sets (11-6, 11-8, 11-9).
The 19-year-old enjoyed a comfortable win over Lobban, who is returning to form following a long knee injury lay-off.
"I’m really happy with my performances so far this week," El Hammamy was quoted as saying on the tournament's official website after the game.
"I’ve played with Donna twice before and both matches were really tough, it was 1-1 in the head-to-head and I knew that she had just come back from injury.
"She is a very tough opponent and so I wanted to be strong from the beginning.
“It feels good to be playing in front of my family and friends. Everyone here is cheering for Egyptians, so it feels good to be playing in front of them. I’m looking forward to my match in front of the Pyramids, I’ve never been there and always watched matches of top ten players playing on the glass court and I always wished that I could be there one day," she added.
El Hammamy will face Malaysia's Sivasangari Subramaniam in the third round on Monday after the latter overcame Milou van der Heijden.
World number 15 Yathreb Adel also went through after beating her compatriot Nada Abbas 3-2 (11-7, 13-11, 11-13, 11-13, 9-11).
"Nada is a very talented player and I knew that she would go for it," Yathreb Adel said after the game.
"She has got good results in the last few tournaments. The first two games I couldn’t really find my length and I was just giving her shots around the ‘T’ area and that’s her strength because she could just attack it.
"I was a bit nervous today because I wanted to play in front of the Pyramids so much to the point that I stressed myself out. I think one of the motives was to win to play there and that fired me up in the end to do it and I’m so happy I made it," Adel added.
Yathreb Adel will face World numbrer 3 Camille Serme of France in the next round.
Meanwhile, Nadine Shahin lost to world number 10 Annie Au of Hong Kong 3-1 (11-8, 9-11, 9-11, 6-11) to bow out.
"She [Nadine Shahin] surprised me with the way she played," Au said .
"She was hitting the ball very fast and the court was bouncy. She was hitting hard and her shots were really good as well." The Hong Kong squash star added.
The PSA Women's World Championship, which kicked off in Egypt on Thursday, provides a beautiful backdrop at the Giza Pyramids as athletes compete for prizes worth a total of $430,000.
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