Amanda Sobhy earned her third Oracle NetSuite Open titledispatching Farida Mohamed in the women’s final Tuesday, October 4, at Pier 70’s Building 12 in San Francisco.
Sobhy entered the match with a 2-0 head to head record against the twenty-year-old, and had yet to drop a game all tournament. But it was Mohamed, a current college squash star at Columbia who took the lead against the former college squash star from Harvard, winning the first game 11-9. Sobhy regrouped between games and commanded the next two 11-3, 11-5. Sobhy continued to press in the fourth with the backing of the home crowd and clinched the title 11-7 after forty-one minutes.
“I’m relieved, I’m happy, I’m ready to take a 12-hour sleep, but you know, I’m just over the moon to win three times,” Sobhy said. “San Fran is my lucky place, I love this tournament, I love you guysI love playing in front of a home crowd. This tournament has always been good to me, I’ve been coming here since 2015. Even though it’s a lot of traveling it’s really fun to perform in front of you guys and the atmosphere is incredible. I only get to come here to San Francisco once a year and to win a third title is amazing.”
Sobhy won the inaugural women’s draw in 2015, and successfully defended her 2021 title.
“I was a bit nervous throughout it all, I hope I didn’t show it too much,” Sobhy said. “Even though I lost the first game I played the right tactics and she just slotted some amazing shots and that’s what she’s capable of. But you know, a few amazing shots can turn into some aggressive tins so I had to brush it off and stick to my positive game plan. I thought we played a really good match today and I wish her all the best in her college squash season.”
The world No. 4 now takes this positive momentum over to the east coast for the PSA Platinum U.S. Open, October 8-15, at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia.