She is a three times World champion and became the youngest woman to win the Women's World Championship (2015). In 2016, she retained her title and in 2019 won her third World Championship equaling the feat of Michelle Martin and rising to equal fourth in the all-time list of world championships won.

She started playing squash when she was 6 years old, and was already participating in tournaments before she was 8. Her brother Omar el Sherbini kept her interested in squash as she would spend time watching him and learning from his sessions. She confirmed that sports run in her family: "My father used to be a football player and a good swimmer. Also my mum was a good athlete.

She won the British Junior Open Under-13 category in 2007 and 2008. On 28 November 2009, Sherbini was awarded the 2009 Young WISPA Squash Player of the Year. As she explains: "By time I gained more confidence and become more steady that made me able to win most of the titles of the local tournaments in Egypt, till reaching the British open and my first international titles. My first BJO title was such a push for more titles starting from under 13 years old till under 15, titles in a row"..

A few months after her 13th birthday, she joined WISPA in early 2009, and in April she announced her arrival by losing to world top liner Engy Kheirallah in a tight 3/1 at the Heliopolis Open. After having reached the final of the ATCO Miro event in June, also in Cairo, Sherbini was stopped by Kheirallah in her bid for her first WISPA Tour title. On August 2, 2009, at 13, Sherbini became the youngest world champion in the history of the sport when she won the women's title at the World Junior squash Championships (U-19). As she explained: "Reaching the most important moment of my life, I was chosen to represent Egypt in the world open junior championship taking place in Chennai, India. To win the title was a dream, but to take it and feel the taste of victory was a dream came true. Adding the World Team title made it looks extraordinary

In four years on the WSA World Tour, Nour El Sherbini rose 208 places in the women’s rankings to occupy the world No. 7 spot at the age of 16.

Her first professional competition came in the Heliopolis Open as a qualifier, and she made it to the first round. The following January she won the British Junior Under-19 Open at the age of 14, at which point she had already broken into the world’s top 50. She returned to Heliopolis in 2010 to claim her first WSA title. The following year, still climbing the rankings and sitting at No. 36, she won the Alexandria International Open as 5th seed and finished the year by reaching round two of the World Open as a qualifier.

In 2012 Sherbini made semi-final appearances in the Tournament of Champions in New York, as well as in the KL Open in Malaysia. These results tipped Sherbini into the world top 20, and she reached the final of the WSA World Series Platinum Allam British Open event at the O2 Arena, where she lost to Nicol David.

On 19 May 2012, Sherbini defeated Raneem El Weleily to become the youngest-ever British Open women’s finalist. She reached a world ranking of No. 1 in April 2016