Team USA’s Sabrina Sobhy upset world No. 3 Hania El Hammamy for the second time in her career to reach the inaugural Paris Open quarterfinals where she joins older sister, Amanda, Wednesday, August 30, in the French Capital.
Competing on an all-glass court staged in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, Sabrina produced one of the best results of her career, outplaying the Egyptian 11-6, 11-6, 11-9 in forty-seven minutes.
The American world No. 16 defeated El Hammamy last season for the first time at the 2022 U.S. Open.
“It’s either that or the one at the U.S. Open against her that are the best performances of my career, I don’t know why!” Sabrina said. “I feel like I was composed and that helped me a lot. It’s the first tournament back and there can be a lot of expectations, but I turned it around so that there were no expectations and I think that helped a lot.”
Sabrina will face former Harvard teammate and world No. 8 Georgina Kennedy in the quarterfinals Thursday at 8pm local time, 2pm ET.
“We’ve [Sabrina and Gina Kennedy] have played in college together on the same team, we’ve played each other many times but I don’t think we’ve played each other on Tour in the past season,” Sabrina said. “No one is easy and Gina is incredibly physical and a really determined squash player. She’s a good friend of mine which makes it fun!”
Amanda, world No. 6, advanced to the quarterfinals with a commanding performance against world No. 38 Lucy Beecroft. The American dispatched the English international 11-2, 11-4, 11-4 in twenty-five minutes.
Amanda will face New Zealand’s world No. 4 Joelle King for a spot in the semifinals in the first match of the day Thursday at noon local time, 6am ET.
Watch live match coverage on squash.tv. For more tournament coverage visit psaworldtour.com.