World Squash champion Amr Shabana returns to the Island next month for the first time since his Endurance World Championships win here in 2007.

Shabana will visit Bermuda to take part in the AXIS Squash Challenge and Exhibition from June 17-20 at the Bermuda Squash Racquets Association in Devonshire. In an all-star line-up Shabana. the world number 8 will take on Columbia’s world number 5 Miguel Rodrigues.

Completing the billing are top women players Alison Waters and Sarah Jane Perry, of England, who are the world number 3 and 14 respectively.

“It’s a pleasure to be invited back to Bermuda for obvious reasons,” said Shabana, whose 2007 win in Bermuda was one of his four world title triumphs. “I have the best memories of my time there, so looking forward to it”

Rodrigues, meanwhile, has had a stellar 12 months on the World tour reaching the semi-finals of the Tournament of Champions in New York and the British Open just last week. He also won the $70,000 Motor City Open in the United States before reaching the semi-finals of the Grasshopper Cup in Switzerland.

This run of results has seen him reach number 5 in the world, becoming the highest ever world ranked South American in the process.

The Axis event will be the culmination of the annual amateur team competition, which features 16 teams of 4 players playing off throughout the week. Joining the male stars on the exhibition night of Saturday June 20 will be Waters and Perry.

Perry is in the best form of her career having won the British National Championships in February, and the $25,000 Granite Open in Toronto.

Patrick Foster, BSRA director of squash, said he thought it would be hard to top last month’s Randall & Quilter Legends of Squash event, however he said the buzz that was being created by Shabana’s imminent arrival was hard to ignore.

“Squash fever is here again,” Foster said. “We have a history of bringing the world’s best players to Bermuda. Going back over the years many of the greats of the game have come and enjoyed this lovely Island whilst putting on a great show for the squash community of Bermuda.”