Team USA’s Amanda Sobhy, Olivia Blatchford Clyne and Sabrina Sobhy advanced to the semifinals of the Canadian Women’s Open semifinals–which will feature an all-Sobhy match up–Wednesday, March 29, at the Allen Lambert Galleria in Toronto.
The PSA Bronze draw progressed according to seeding with the top eight seeds reaching the quarterfinals and the top four seeds overcoming the lower seeds in contrasting fashion.
Blatchford Clyne, the four seed, came back from 2-0 down against Cornell senior and six seed Sivasangari Subramaniam 8-11, 7-11, 11-6, 11-4, 13-11 in fifty-four minutes. The world No. 13 will face two seed and world No. 14 Salma Hany in the semifinals after the Egyptian dispatched seven seed Emily Whitlock in a three-game quarterfinal.
“Honestly, I’m a bit speechless,” Blatchford Clyne said. “When you’re 2-0 down and there are things going through your head, a lot of talk and a lot of chatter, and honestly I just tried to lean in to being tough and being resilient!”
The draw’s top half semifinal will feature an all Sobhy sister showdown after both players progressed against lower ranked opposition. Sabrina Sobhy held off England’s world No. 43 and eight seed Lucy Beecroft 11-6, 9-11, 13-11, 11-7 in forty-eight minutes. Amanda Sobhy, the tournament’s top seed, defeated Canadian No. 1 and world No. 18 Hollie Naughton 11-8, 11-7, 12-10 in thirty-five minutes.
“The pressure was on me as the top seed and she really had nothing to lose so credit to her for coming out with a strong performance and I’m so happy to have played the end of the game really well,” Amanda Sobhy said afterwards.
Wednesday’s finals will begin at 7pm local time. Watch the semifinals live on SquashTV.