CIB Black Ball Open: El Sherbini Dominates Mickawy

World No.1 Nour El Sherbini is through to the second round of the CIB Black Ball Open after an imperious display during her opening match, after arriving in Cairo in top form.

The pair had never faced each other on the PSA World Tour, and their first meeting went completely the way of El Sherbini, who showed her skills from the very start to win in just 23 minutes.

The World No.1 came flying out of the traps, and allowed her compatriot to score just seven points across the opening two games, as the ‘Warrior Princess’ found all of her targets in the opening exchanges.

Dear everyone at the CIB @BlackBallSquash Open,@noursherbini has arrived and is in top form!

Yours truly,
Squash#BlackBallOpen pic.twitter.com/g0g2faOfjB

— PSA World Tour (@PSAWorldTour) December 7, 2020

Mickawy attempted to fight her way back into the match in the third, and held a lead at different points in the game, but in the end, El Sherbini powered her way through to the second round, winning in straight games.

She will now take on World No.12 Nele Gilis in the last 16, and will play the Belgian No.1 on Wednesday evening, after she defeated another Egyptian, in Nada Abbas, earlier on.

“Zeina and I, we play every week. We play in the same club and have the same fitness coach. We have played many times. It is difficult to play an opponent that you know very well. She loves to attack a lot. I am very happy, I just wanted to start strong and that’s what I did,” the four-time World Champion explained.

“Surprisingly, my knee injury is the same as last year, I am just handling it better now. The struggle is the same, but the time off made me understand my body more. It helped me know when to push and when to stop. I am handling it well up. To now and hopefully it will continue like this. We will just see how it goes.”

Result
[1] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) bt Zeina Mickawy (EGY) 3-0: 11-4, 11-3, 11-9 (23m)