Team USA’s Todd Harrity reached the first PSA Platinum third round of his career, while Amanda Sobhy advanced to her fifth career Windy City Open presented by the Walter Family third round Thursday, February 24, at the University Club of Chicago.
Harrity, who entered the tournament with a career high ranking of world No. 34, defeated England’s world No. 42 Declan James for the second time in their fourth PSA encounter 11-2, 9-11, 11-8, 13-11 in fifty-four minutes.
The thirty-one-year-old American now moves onto the glass court in Cathedral Hall Friday to take on Egypt’s world No. 7 Marwan ElShorbagy for their first career match up at 12:45pm local time, 1:45pm ET.
“It’s my first time winning two matches at a major event like this so my first time in the last 16 so it’s very exciting for me,” Harrity said. “I’ve worked hard and it’s finally paid off. I think we’ve played a few times now and he’s so skillful so I’m very pleased with this win. I tried to pin him in the back corners and take his reach away and stop him from hitting those low kills that he’s so good at. There’s no pressure on me going into the next round, all I want to do is play well and make the most out of the opportunity.”
World No. 4 Amanda Sobhy joined her U.S. teammate in the third round Thursday night with a decisive three-game victory against Canada’s world No. 17 Hollie Naughton 11-5, 11-6, 11-2 in twenty-nine minutes.
“I haven’t played a major even since the U.S. Open,” Sobhy said afterwards. “I wanted to just come out here and be like ‘hey, I did take a lot of time off’. My last couple of results weren’t the greatest, but I’m back and that’s all that matters. I kept it in true Sobhy fashion 3-0 under the 30 minute mark. I’m excited to be back, I love this venue, I have great memories here and I hope to keep progressing. I’m just going to remember the good times I had and what got me those wins and it was really enjoying myself out there. I love doing this, yes it might be hard but I love performing, grinding it out, putting on a show for the crowd so I’m just going to try and keep it going.”
The twenty-eight-year-old has a rest day before facing Wales’ world No. 14 Tesni Evans Saturday at 5pm local time, 6pm ET.
Three other Americans were in second round action Thursday. World No. 11 Olivia Fiechter lost a tight four-game match against England’s world No. 10 Georgina Kennedy on the glass court, and world No. 12 Olivia Blatchford Clyne pushed world No. 6 Joelle King to five games on the side courts
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For tickets visit windycityopen.ussquash.com.