Sabrina Sobhy pulled off her first career win over world No. 8 Sarah-Jane Perry to reach her first PSA Gold semifinal, while Amanda Sobhy overcame a five-game challenge from world No. 14 Nele Gilis in the MARIGOLD Singapore Open Quarterfinals Friday, November 18.
In the first quarterfinal of the day, Amanda–the tournament’s top seed–saved a match ball in the fifth game to overcome the Belgian in sixty-five minute affair, 7-11, 11-7, 4-11, 11-9, 12-10.
“I am a little tired! Very relieved, but definitely tired,” Amanda said. “She got a lot of balls back, and definitely caught me off guard. I am definitely happy to win that last point at the end. I had to try a little bit harder, a bit more effort, kick myself up a gear. It was helpful not to have to do it alone, and to have someone in my corner to tell me those things. So thank you Diego [Elias]. She gets a lot of balls back, so it’s having to win the rally a few times to actually win the rally. It was a really good match and I am just pleased that I was the winner in the end.”
Sabrina followed on later in the quarterfinal session, and produced a confident performance with her retrieval and attacking ability on full display, notching her first career win over Perry 11-9, 11-8, 11-6 in thirty-two minutes.
“It feels awesome. I couldn’t have asked for a better week so far in Singapore, it’s been really chilled and relaxing, the hospitality has been fantastic and it adds a level of ease that all the players look for,” Sabrina said. “I feel like I’ve had that this week and that has made me a little more relaxed on court and found some more enjoyment in there and I’ve been having a great time. I appreciate the crowd and the liveliness that the atmosphere has. SJ [Perry] is one of those players who will make you run to every corner frantically, which I definitely felt in many rallies for nearly the entire game but somehow, I managed to sneak it out in the end. Each rally was physically and definitely difficult which is why she’s one of the best squash players.”
Amanda and Sabrina will both face the same players who knocked them out of the 2022 U.S. Open last month: three seed Nour El Tayeb and two seed Joelle King, respectively.
Saturday’s semifinals will begin at 2pm local time, 1am ET. Watch the action live on www.squash.tv and follow more tournament coverage on singaporesquashopen.com.