Two weeks after upsetting the world No. 14 in the Windy City Open first round, Team USA’s Olivia Blatchford has gone two better, taking out world No. 12 and Ciudad de Floridablanca four seed Annie Au to reach Thursday’s quarterfinals in Colombia
In just their second career PSA Tour mach up, the world No. 27 from Wilton, Connecticut, recovered from 2-1 down in games to win 13-11, 6-11, 9-11, 11-7, 11-2, in sixty-five minutes. The victory marks the highest ranked upset of Blatchford’s career to date.
“It was like a see-saw, sometimes I played well and other times I was like ‘what are you doing!?” Blatchford said. “I tried really hard and that’s why I do all this fitness work because, when I have these games, I know that I can go for it 100 per cent.”
Blatchford will now play on the glass court Thursday night against England’s five seed Emily Whitlock at 7:45pm ET.
“I wanted to get a good start, which I did, but she came back and she is really clever, so my goal was to make it physical and up the pace. Work the front and back corners, really push the tempo and try to cut out some of the errors. That was my goal and I managed to do that. I can’t wait to get on the glass court now, I’m super excited.”
The first glass court session Wednesday evening was delayed by an hour due to weather conditions, but the delay didn’t faze world No. 6 Amanda Sobhy, who defeated former college rival Millie Tomlinson in three games and twenty-three minutes.
“I prepared myself figuring that there would be a delay, and it’s just something you can’t control, it’s just a funny situation,” Sobhy said. “The only thing you can do is laugh about it, stay relaxed and try to be as focused as you can be when you get on.”
Sobhy will lead off glass court play in front of the picturesque Parque el Santisimo against Welsh world No. 19 Tesni Evans at 7pm ET.
“I feel like a kid in a candy shop here, the venue is awesome,” Sobhy said. “It’s an amazing venue regardless of the weather and I’m so thankful that the mayor of Floridablanca [Hector Mantilla] and Squash Colombia have been able to put this event on for us.”
Watch Floridablanca coverage Thursday from 7pm ET on SquashTV.