KUALA LUMPUR: Following her remarkable triumph in the recent London Classic, S. Sivasangari has got all of Egypt taking notice of her.
The Malaysian squash player has emerged as a serious threat to Egypt's dream of winning the women's individual gold medal when squash debuts in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
When Sivasangari journeys to the land of the pyramids for the El Gouna International, which starts tomorrow, she will no doubt come under the Egyptian public's scrutiny.
They will want to see how dangerous the Malaysian challenger is to their squash Cleopatras.
Early this month, Sivasangari caused a stir when she toppled Egypt's world No. 1 Nour El Sherbini and world No. 2 Hania El Hammamy to capture the gold-stamdard London Classic of the world tour. It's rare that Egypt's top two players were toppled by the same lower-ranked opponent in a week.
But has World No. 13 Sivasangari truly arrived - that she is up there among the elites?
The Red Sea city of El Gouna will be the battleground for Sivasangari to show the world that she is the one who can repel the waves of Egyptian women's players that have been dominating world
squash.
To do so, the 25-year-old will have to defy the Egyptian crowd in a country where squash is as popular to the Egyptians as badminton is to Malaysians.
After receiving a first round bye, Sivasangari's Egyptian hurdle will come as early as the next round - against Hania. That should be a cliffhanger. In the London Classic final, they went the full distance of five sets with Sivasangari only better by three points (11-8) in the decider.
If Sivasangari gets past Hania, the following round is expected to be as intense as she is likely to face another Egyptian in two-time world junior champion Amina Orfi.
Should Sivasangari advance, she will have to run more of the Egyptian gauntlet with the tournament's top seed, Nour, lurking and eyeing revenge.
Sivasangari, who is training under David Palmer in Cornell, United States, said: "The London Classic is over now, so I'm going to put that aside.
"I played really well to beat all the top players there but I'm moving on to play the next couple of tournaments.
"It's going to be tough for sure. Hania is world No. 2 for a reason. I'm going to just focus on myself and give my best."
The other Malaysian women competing in El Gouna are national No. 2 Rachel Arnold and the Azman sisters, Aifa and Aira.
In the men's event, national No. 1 Ng Eain Yow, who won the German Open recently, will face Mexico's Cesar Salazar in the first round.