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Team USA’s Amanda Sobhy reached her first career PSA Tour world series final at the 2016 J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions Wednesday evening, defeating Egypt’s world junior champion Nouran Gohar in a close three-game encounter in Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall.
Playing in front of a sold out, vocal crowd full of family, friends, and teammates, the Harvard graduate twice fought back from 9-6 down in both the first and third games to pull out an 11-9, 11-9, 12-10 victory in thirty-eight minutes.
Playing in just her third career world series semifinal, the twenty-two-year-old from Sea Cliff, New York, progressed for the first time becoming the first U.S.-born American to ever reach a PSA Tour world series final.
“I’m a little shocked, I don’t really have any words, ” Sobhy said. “It was a battle. Even though it was 3-0 it was so tough from the beginning to the end. I just tried to stay in my bubble and not let the pressure of getting to the finals in front of my home crowd get to me.
“I’m so relieved to win in three. It could have gone either way. We could have had a five-gamer or she could have beat me 3-0. I’m just really relieved that I handled the big points at the end well and that I stayed mentally focused, even though I was down, with the help of the amazing crowd again.”
Sobhy, the tournament’s ten seed, will face Egypt’s three-time world junior champion and seven seed Nour El Sherbini, who defeated 2013 champion and former world No. 1 Nicol David in three games.
So far in New York City, Sobhy has dethroned defending champion and world No. 2 Raneem El Welily, as well as the 2015 finalist and former world No. 3 Alison Waters in the quarterfinals.
Despite their youth, Sobhy has already faced twenty-year-old El Sherbini six times on tour, four of which she has won.
Thursday night’s final takes place at 7pm ET with the men’s final following on. Both finals are streaming live on both Tennis Channel Everywhere and SquashTV.
For more information, visit www.tocsquash.com.