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22-Dec-07:
Amr Shabana & Nicol David Voted Players Of The Year In World
Squash Awards
Malaysia's
Nicol David and Egyptian Amr Shabana were named as
Players of the Year at the 2007 World Squash
Awards last night (Friday) in London.
A star-studded
gathering, featuring top players past and present as
well as leading Squash figures from around the world, gathered
at the RAC Club in Pall Mall to honour
the sport's most distinguished contributors.
Remarkably, Amr
Shabana and Nicol David - both of whom head their respective
world rankings - were claiming the top awards for the second
successive year.
Shabana, 28, from
Giza, near Cairo, maintained his grip on the PSA world number
one ranking throughout the year - winning the Windy City
Open and Tournament of Champions titles at the
beginning of 2007. He rounded off the year in sensational
style by reeling off four PSA Super Series titles in a
row - the Saudi International, Qatar Classic,
Hong Kong Open and then the World Open in Bermuda,
to bring his career PSA trophy haul to 20.
During a year in
which she established a 50-match unbeaten run, Nicol David
surprisingly faltered in the World Open in Madrid. But
the plucky 24-year-old from Penang came back stronger than
ever to win both the Qatar Classic and Hong Kong
Open - and bring her 2007 WISPA World Tour title tally to
eight, marking her best ever year. However, despite being
taken close by World Open winner Rachael Grinham,
David clinched the WISPA members' votes as Player of the
Year for the third year in a row!
Shelley Kitchen,
the New Zealander who sensationally stopped Nicol David in the
second round of the World Open in Madrid, is recognised as
WISPA's Most Improved Player of the Year. The
28-year-old from Auckland followed her surprise
Commonwealth Games bronze medal success in 2006 by
claiming four quarter-final berths in WISPA Gold events early
in 2007 as a non-seed - and, four Tour titles later, Shelley
went on to celebrate a career-high world No9 ranking in
November.
Egyptian Ramy
Ashour is the PSA Young Player of the
Year for the second time. By the time he had
celebrated his 20th birthday in September, the
record two-time world junior champion had already picked up
five PSA Tour titles in the year - all against seeding. In
the Kuwait Open final in April, Ramy beat Amr Shabana
for the first time - and in the November PSA world rankings,
only failed by a margin of one point in more than a thousand
to replace his compatriot at the top of the list! Later in
the year, in his first appearance in the event, Ramy won the
flagship PSA Tour championship, the Super Series Finals.
The award for
WISPA Young Player of the Year went to Camille
Serme, the 18-year-old from France who followed her second
successive European Junior Championship win by reaching
the final of the World Junior Championship in Hong Kong
in August. In November, Serme celebrated her maiden Tour
title win at the Santiago Open in Spain.
The 2007 World
Squash Awards' Lifetime Achievement award was
made to Heather McKay, AM, MBE, the
distinguished Australian who won 16 consecutive British
Open titles between 1962 and 1977. Considered by many to
be the greatest female player in the history of the game, and
possibly also Australia's greatest-ever sportswoman, Heather
dominated the women's squash game in the 1960s and 1970s. She lost only two matches in her entire career (in 1960 and
1962), and was unbeaten in competitive squash matches from
1962 through to 1981, when she retired from active open
squash.
Mrs McKay was
disappointed not to have been able to attend the Awards: "I
know the award has been awarded only twice before, to two of
the legends of squash, Jahangir Khan and Jonah Barrington, so
I am honoured to be the first female to receive this award,"
said McKay in a message read out at the ceremony.
"As you may have
already guessed, squash has been a major part of my life
having first started playing in 1959, winning my first major
championship The Australian in 1960 and eventually retiring
from open squash in 1981. I had no idea that when I had my
first hit of squash I would be lucky enough to travel the
world and make friends world wide, some of whom I still keep
in touch with."
A special
Services to Squash award was made to veteran squash
correspondent Dicky Rutnagur. Widely believed have
seen more top class competition squash than any other man
alive, D.J. Rutnagur began covering the sport for the Daily
Telegraph at the time that Hashim Khan made his international
breakthrough - and has reported on all the sport's greats
since then.
Those attending
the 2007 Awards included England heroes Nick Matthew,
James Willstrop and Peter Barker, who led
England to a successful defence of the Men's World Team
Championship title earlier in the month in India -
and coach David Pearson; Award-winners
Camille Serme and Shelley Kitchen; Australia's
recently retired former world No4 Anthony Ricketts;
former world champion Vanessa Atkinson, from the
Netherlands; England's Jenny Duncalf and Alison
Waters, members of the 2006 Women's World Team
Championship-winning squad; England's former world No2
Peter Marshall; England captain and former World Doubles
champion Chris Walker; Yorkshireman Simon Parke,
the former US Open champion; Essex's Daryl Selby
and Lauren Briggs; and former British National champion
Geoff Williams.
The event was
staged for the third year by Eventis Sports Marketing,
the company formed by four-times Commonwealth Games
gold medallist Peter Nicol and fellow directors Tim
Garner and Angus Kirkland.
20-Dec-07:
England Heroes Head London
World Squash Awards Line-Up
England heroes
Nick Matthew, James Willstrop and Peter Barker,
who led England to a successful defence of the Men's World
Team Championship title last week in India - where
they beat Australia in the final - will head a
star-studded list of squash players, past and present, who
will attend the third annual World Squash Awards at the
RAC Club in Pall Mall, London, on Friday (21
December).
Hosted by
Eventis Sports Marketing, the company formed by four-times
Commonwealth Games gold medallist Peter Nicol
and fellow directors Tim Garner and Angus Kirkland,
the World Squash Awards come at the end of one
of the most action-packed years in the history of the sport.
The world's top
women's battled for the Madrid World Open title in
October, while the men fought out the individual World Open
crown in Bermuda in November, followed by this
month's Men's World Team Championship action in
Chennai. Then 72 hours before enjoying RAC Club hospitality
on Friday, James Willstrop and Nick Matthew were
battling for Mamut English Open honours in the final in
Sheffield!
Australian
interest at the Awards event will be led by Anthony
Ricketts, the former world No4 who was forced to announce
his retirement from the sport this month. Also in attendance
will be New Zealand's Commonwealth Games bronze
medallist Shelley Kitchen; former world champion
Vanessa Atkinson, from the Netherlands; and England's
Jenny Duncalf and Alison Waters, members of the
2006 Women's World Team Championship-winning squad.
Past players at
the 2007 Awards will include England's former world No2
Peter Marshall; England captain and former World Doubles
champion Chris Walker; and Yorkshireman Simon Parke,
the former US Open champion.
The full list of
nominees is:
PSA Male Player of
the Year:
Ramy Ashour
(EGY), Gregory Gaultier (FRA), Amr Shabana (EGY)
PSA Young Male
Player of the Year:
Ramy Ashour
(EGY), Mohamed El Shorbagy (EGY), Omar Mosaad (EGY)
WISPA Female Player
of the Year:
Nicol David
(MAS), Natalie Grinham (AUS), Rachael Grinham (AUS), Shelley
Kitchen (NZL)
WISPA Young Female
Player of the Year:
Annie Au (HKG),
Heba El Torky (EGY), Low Wee Wern (MAS), Maria Toor Pakay
(PAK), Camille Serme (FRA)
WISPA Most Improved
Female Player of the Year:
Emma Beddoes
(ENG), Line Hansen (DEN), Shelley Kitchen (NZL), Tenille
Swartz (RSA), Samantha Teran (MEX)
There will also
be two further awards: a Lifetime Achievement
award, and a Services to Squash award.
A new initiative
at the 2007 World Squash Awards will be a fundraising auction,
organised on behalf of the World Squash Federation, to
support Squash's Olympic ambitions.
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