2016 Returning Champs
Get to Know….
The 2016 NASH Cup Returning Champions
Maria Toorpakai Wazir (rank 61) is Pakistan’s greatest ever female player & turned pro in 2006.
A trailblazer in her native Pakistan, she fought against gender barricades inflicted on her by the Islamic beliefs of her hometown and posed as a boy to compete in sporting competitions in her younger days. Her biography – A Different Kind of Daughter – was published earlier this year.
Her maiden Tour title came at the Liberty Bell Open in 2012 where she started the event as a qualifier.
More success followed later that year at the Southwest Open before she captured her third title at the Nash Cup in September 2013 after beating Milou van der Heijden in the final. She made history at the 2nd Bahria Town International Women’s Squash Tournament to become the first female Pakistani player to win a PSA Challenger 10 event.
Maria became the first repeat champion of the NASH Cup in 2015 with her win over Millie Tomlinson.
Following her title defence at the NASH Cup Maria gets a couple of weeks off before travelling to Brooklyn for a $50K event in late October. Later this fall she is currently entered in the first women’s event in Sarnia – The Simon Warder Memorial – which starts Tuesday November 15th.
Declan James (ENG; rank 39; Twitter: http://twitter.com@declanjames1) hales from Nottingham England and will make his 4th appearance at the NASH Cup this fall as he defends his 2015 title. At 195cm in height he is the tallest entry in this years event by a good margin
Declan’s ranking has been rising steadily since he joined the PSA in 2011. He reached 37th in June having won the NASH Cup as well as the Fibreglass Open and Steel City Open in the past year. He is currently entered in 4 tournaments this fall in an effort to move even higher. He’ll get a week off to travel from a $25K in France before launching into our main draw as the #2 seeded player.
Shawn Delierre (CAN; rank 70; Twitter: @ShawnDelierre ) is one of the fittest players on the PSA World Tour and has, incredibly, appeared in three of the top five longest squash matches ever recorded.
He won his first title at the Quebec Open Classic in 2004 and grabbed his fifth at the Goodlife Squash Open in 2006. The Canadian won three consecutive PSA World Tour titles in 2010 with his 10th title coming on home-soil at the Nash Cup in September 2011.
After a strong 2012, Delierre began 2013 in the world’s top 40 ranked players and earned his first PSA Challenger 15 title at the National Capital Open in January of that year.
A couple of titles followed in 2014, before his mammoth 170 minute semi-final clash with Leo Au in the Gas City Pro-Am in January 2015 made headlines as it broke the record for being the longest match ever recorded.
Jens Schoor (GER; rank 63) joined the PSA in 2006 and has forged a strong career with a number of title victories to his name. The first title win was in Australia at the NSW Open in 2010. He now has 10 titles to his name and has remained within the top 100 in the world since.
He was entered as the 6th seed when he won the 2014 NASH Cup against Eddie Charlton of England.
Jens reached his best ever ranking of 60th in March 2015 and has held to the top 74 since. Like Declan James he will have a week off prior to the NASH cup as he travels from a $25K event in France. He is not currently booked in any events after the NASH Cup.