Nele Gilis is the Belgian no.1 who broke into the world's top ten for the first time in the latter part of 2022. She is also the older sister of another Belgian player Tinne Gilis. She secured her maiden World Tour level crown at the start of the 2022-2023 season, as she defeated younger sister Tinne in the final of the Open de France de Squash, to the delights of the crowd at Hangar 24 in Nantes. She then made the semis of the New Zealand Open, and the last eight of the Singapore Open, before securing the Malaysian Open Championships crown, moving into the world’s top ten for the first time as a result. The Belgian started 2023 with a last 16 result at the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions, before then reaching the semi-finals of the Chestnut Hill Classic. That was followed by a quarter final appearance at the World Championship, before reaching back-to-back finals. Gilis made it to the final of the Manchester Open, where she lost out to Nour El Tayeb. She then followed that up by making the final of the El Gouna International, beating Nour El Sherbini on her way to becoming the first Belgian to reach a major final on the world tour. Although she lost out to Nouran Gohar, she climbed to world no.7, equalling the best ever ranking position of a Belgian, joining Stefan Castelyn in making that mark.