Seeded only to reach the last 16 at the event in Chennai, India, the teenager from Alexandria despatched the sixth seed, the number two seed Heba El Torky and then the eighth seed to reach the final where she faced fourth seed Nour El Tayeb - her second higher-ranked Egyptian opponent.

 

Undaunted by the historic opportunity that beckoned, El Sherbini recovered from a game down to beat El Tayeb 5-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-5 in 31 minutes to claim the title, replacing Malysia's Nicol David as the youngest junior world champion ever.

 

David won the title as a 15-year-old in 1998 and has since gone on to become the sport's dominant female player, having won the World Open in 2005, 2006 and 2008 and has been ranked as the world's number one for three years.

 

El Sherbini is the lowest-seeded player ever to win a world junior crown and World Squash Federation officials hope that it demonstrates the worldwide popularity and appeal of the sport as it continues its bid to be included in the 2016 Olympics.

 

She said: "I'm so happy.

 

"After losing the first [game], I remembered how I came back when I was down against Heba, and that gave me the belief I could do it again. I kept telling myself I could do it, and I did."

 

Incredibly, El Sherbini, who celebrates her 14th birthday in November, will have the chance to defend her title on five further occasions - with the prospect of recording a further piece of squash history by becoming the first player to win a world junior title more than twice.

 

Mohamed El Shorbagy (pictured El Sherbini) with  made it a notable Egyptian double when he successfully defended his men's title - on the first occasion that a world junior title has been contested annually.

 

The 18-year-old favourite from Alexandria defeated second-seeded Malaysian Ivan Yuen 11-9, 12-10, 11-2 in 36 minutes.

 

He said: "I’m really happy to win this world junior title.

 

"This is year was much harder than the last one.

 

"I can say that this was the hardest week I've ever had in my life - I just couldn’t sleep properly for one day, so I’m really glad that I won the tournament.

 

"Me and Ivan had a very tough first two games today and I was really glad to win them.

 

"He is a very good player and very fair and I’m sure he’ll get to the top in the PSA very quickly if he keeps training hard.

 

"I would like to thank my dad and my mum a lot, they did really a lot for me and winning this title again, it’s just a small thing I can do for them."

 

Afterwards, El Shorbagy, a student at Millfield School in Somerst, who is ranked 17th in the world, paid tribute to his British coach Jonah Barrington, a former six-time winner of the British Open when the event was considered to be the most important tournament on the sport's calendar.

 

El Shorbagy said: "Jonah too is a very special man to me - he did a lot for me in the past three years and without him I would have never dreamed to do what I have done till now in squash.

 

"He taught me lots of things and I’m still learning every day from him something new.

 

"He has so much of experience and he gave me so much from his experience.

 

"He is so special for me and he’ll always be.

 

"I came back to Egypt one month before the World juniors and I was training with Amir Wagih.

 

"He was taking me every day and giving me every day a session at eight in the morning I really worked hard with him before the tournament, so thanks to him so much too."