Team USA’s Amanda Sobhy upset world No. 8 Laura Massaro for the first time on the PSA World Tour to reach the quarterfinals of the El Gouna International Squash Open–a PSA World Tour Platinum event–Sunday, April 21, in Egypt.
Following a first-round bye, Sobhy–the tournament’s thirteen seed–opened up her tournament with a four-game victory over England’s world No. 21 Emily Whitlock to set up her first PSA World Tour encounter against Massaro since 2016.
Massaro defeated the American world No. 12 in all five of their career PSA World Tour match ups since 2012, but the American earned her first victory against the former world No. 1 in their most recent clash at the 2016 Women’s World Team Championship.
On Sunday, Sobhy took a 2-0 advantage on the traditional court, 11-5, 11-6, before earning two match balls in the third up 10-8, both of which Massaro fought off to win the third 13-11. Sobhy regained control in the fourth game to set up three match balls at 10-7, converting on the second to win 11-8 after forty-four minutes.
“I think it was the refusal to lose that got her through it and being able to back myself while having the confidence of being able to scalp the top eight players,” Sobhy said. “I saw this as an opportunity, I haven’t played Laura in a number of years, and I wanted to see how I would do up against someone other than Nour El Tayeb or Nour El Sherbini.”
Sobhy now moves on to the all glass court in Abu Tig Marina where she will face Egypt’s world No. 3 Nour El Tayeb for the third time this season on Tuesday, April 23, at 8pm local time, 2pm EDT. Watch the match live on SquashTV and PSA World Tour Facebook Live.
“I’m happy with how I regrouped, hung in there and backed myself to win in four,” Sobhy said. “I think playing those matches against the top players and learning from those tough losses every time is key to turning the losses into wins.”
Fore more tournament coverage visit psaworldtour.com.
