Rachael Grinham lands the summer resort's famed squash prize. Nashwa Abdel-Tawab brings colour to the silver event Australia's Rachael Grinham beat title holder Egyptian Omneya Abdel-Qawi 9-4 9-6 9-4 in the final of the WISPA World Tour Silver event staged on an all-glass court on The Plaza in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada. Top seeded Grinham, a two-time winner of the title and a finalist for the past four years, met Abdel-Qawi for the fourth successive year in the Hurghada final on Sunday and managed to beat the Egyptian in three sets and avenge herself over Abdel-Qawi who hindered her bid for a hat-trick of titles when the latter took the title last year. Winner of the title for the first time last year, Abdel-Qawi wanted so much to celebrate her 14th appearance in a WISPA World Tour final as well as the 10th Hurghada tournament with a victory but the hot weather affected her drastically. Abdel-Qawi is deceptively fast, her racket skills sublime and the 21-year-old could have edged higher than her current career high ranking of seven. Cairo-based Grinham won her 39th WISPA World Tour final but her first this year. Despite the Egyptian applauds, the chants of "Om-Neya, Om-Neya" from the expansive crowd could not stop the progress of Grinham or raise the pace of Abdel-Qawi. Abdel-Qawi reported the heat in more ways than one. "It was hot and humid in the court tonight and I didn't quite play as well as I could." The other heat was that of pressure. "All the crowds were cheering for me and that is a good feeling. But because I won last year there is a lot of pressure on me to do it again. It wasn't like that in other years." Grinham's cruise to the finals was not as easy as Abdel-Qawi. The world ranked number three took some time to dispatch Egyptian qualifier Salma Shabana, a former world No 20 and now mother of two young children, 9-7, 9-1, 9-3 in her opening match. Then she managed Lauren Siddall from England 9-2 9-3 9-3. Her toughest match was the semi-final where Engi Kheirallah gave her a hard time. Supported not only by the packed crowd, Kheirallah also had her fiancé Karim Darwish, the world No 12, in her corner. The 25- year-old from Alexandria led 5-3 in the opening game, but Grinham recovered to win the match 9-2, 9-7, 3-9, 9-2. As for Abdel-Qawi, the cruise was easier. She beat Georgina Stoker from England 9-0 9-1 9-2 in the opener in 17 minutes. Then she handled Christina Mak from Hong Kong 9-0 9-2 9-1 in about the same time, But it took her 28 minutes to beat Raneem El-Walili 9-7 9-2 9-3. Abdel-Qawi stays in seventh position in the world, Kheirallah at 14th whereas 18-year- old Raneem El-Walili advanced to 23rd. In her first match fourth seed El-Walili beat her compatriot Nour El-Tayeb 9-2 9-4 9-3. Then she skillfully reined the second game against 26-year-old Elise Ng from Hong Kong, taking the three games required to reach the last four. Looking languid at times, she used her explosive pace to stay in so many rallies and a deft shot to win them in a nearly error free performance. Like her countrywoman Abdel-Qawi, El-Walili looks well placed to become another two-time world junior champion when the event takes place in Ng's country of Hong Kong in August. Men also had their share of fame on the international map. Egyptian teen sensation Rami Ashour has leapt to a career-high world No 3 in the new May Dunlop PSA men's world rankings, issued this week by the Professional Squash Association. The 19-year-old from Cairo shocked the squash world last month when he won the two biggest titles of the year so far -- clinching the $200,000 Sheikh Al-Saad Kuwait Open and then the $120,000 Qatar Classic in Doha within six days. Less than 12 months ago Ashour made history by winning the World Junior Championship title for a second time, and his rapid transition to the senior stage has already seen the remarkable youngster win four major PSA Tour titles this year. Ashour's compatriot Amr Shabana retains his status as the world's No 1 player in the new list, celebrating his 14th successive month at the top of the rankings. In a notable month for Egyptians, Wa'el El-Hindi also recorded a career-high position in the new list. The 26-year-old from Cairo leaps four places to No 10 for the first time after reaching the quarter-finals in Kuwait and the last four in Doha.
