An American is guaranteed to reach the $70,000 Ciudad de Floridablanca final after Team USA’s Amanda Sobhy and Olivia Blatchford set up a semifinal match up Thursday night at the Parque el Santisimo in Colombia.
Sobhy, world No. 6 and the tournament’s top seed, led off Thursday’s evening’s matches against Welsh world No. 19 Tesni Evans, and continued her perfect tournament with a three-game, thirty-eight-minute win.
“I knew that the last couple of times Tesni and I have played, it has been tough and I know she’s in good form,” Sobhy said. “I tried to implement my fast pace from the beginning and I tried to hold and stop and start her because she’s really good when she gets into a rhythm. If you play at a medium pace then she’s deadly. I tried to take that away from her and I’m really pleased that I was able to execute it in three games and that I was able to move well and still be breathing after the match.”
After recording her highest career upset in the first round, Blatchford continues her streak of career bests with her biggest semifinal stage to date, after England’s five seed Emily Whitlock was forced to retire in the third game due to injury.
“All-in-all it’s a massive step in the right direction for my career,” Blatchford said. “I felt really confident going into it and, while it’s not the way I wanted to win, it’s a step forward.”
Sobhy and Blatchford recently faced each other in the Windy City Open second round just two weeks ago, which Sobhy won in four games.
“We know each-other very well, inside and out,” Blatchford said. “She’s a teammate, a friend and she’s my roommate here. I have great respect for her and her game. Hopefully tomorrow will see two girls trying to go at it no matter how well they know each-others games.”
Watch the Team USA match up live on SquashTV Friday, March 10, at 6:30pm ET.