Team USA’s Amanda Sobhy, Olivia Blatchford Clyne, Olivia Fiechter, Haley Mendez and Marina Stefanoni are set to compete against the world’s best in hopes of reaching one of the sport’s most iconic stages–an all-glass court next to the Pyramids of Giza–at the $430,000 CIB PSA Women’s World Championship, October 24-November 1, in Cairo, Egypt.
The women’s worlds fields a full draw of sixty-four players with majority of the first and second round matches taking place on traditional courts at local clubs before moving to the glass court entirely in the third round. All side court matches are streaming live on the PSA SquashTV YouTube channel, while second round glass court matches by the pyramids will broadcast on SquashTV Saturday, October 26.
World No. 40 Olivia Fiechter will be the first American in action at 12pm noon local time, 6am ET, on court 1 against Hong Kong’s world No. 10 Annie Au in what will be her second appearance at women’s worlds. Fiechter and Au’s only previous encounter was in May’s British Open, where Fiechter’s season ended due to injury in the second game.
World No. 8 Amanda Sobhy follows Fiechter at 2:15pm local time, 8:15am ET, with a difficult first-round match up against Cornell’s Sivasangari Subramaniam on court 2. Subramaniam was one of the surprise stories of the FS Investments U.S. open two weeks ago where the twenty-year-old Malaysian reached the last sixteen. Sobhy is set for her fifth career appearance at women’s worlds and is seeded to reach what would be her second career worlds quarterfinals as the eight seed. Sobhy could reach the glass court in the third round on Monday, October 28, should she progress against Subramaniam and either Menna Nasser or Milou van der Heijden in the second round.
Both world No. 42 Haley Mendez and sixteen-year-old Marina Stefanoni are slated for 4pm matches local time, 10am ET. Mendez will be aiming for her first career worlds victory against India’s twelve seed Joshna Chinappa in her fourth tournament appearance on court 2. Stefanoni, who qualified with her fourth PSA title of 2019 in September, will make her worlds debut against England’s world No. 13 and eleven seed Alison Waters on court 3.
World No. 20 Olivia Blatchford Clyne will be the last American on court on opening day at 5:30pm local time, 11:30am ET. The twenty-six-year-old’s fifth tournament appearance will open up on court 2 against twenty-one-year-old Egyptian Menna Hamed. A victory for Blatchford Clyne could set up a second round match up against defending champion and world No. 1 Raneem El Welily.
In addition to the women’s worlds, the men’s PSA Platinum CIB Egyptian Squash Open will be held concurrently, October 25-November 1.
For more tournament coverage visit psaworldtour.com.
