Team USA’s Olivia Fiechter and Amanda Sobhy are through to the quarterfinals of the Southwestern Open after second round wins Thursday, September 28, at the Houston Squash Club.
Both Fiechter and Sobhy opened up their campaigns with 3-0 victories to move on to the PSA Gold quarterfinals.
Fiechter, the three seed, defeated Egypt’s Sana Ibrahim 12-10, 11-7, 11-1 in thirty-eight minutes.
“I’m really excited to get through that match, Sana was extremely aggressive and even until the last game there she was fighting, so I knew I had to put my foot on the gas when things weren’t going my way,” Fiechter said. “She came out strong at the start of the second game, and I wasn’t quite finding my length and nailing the basics, so I just told myself to reset, make my way back to the ’T’, and when I started doing that I’m really pleased with how I turned it around.”
Fiechter will face Egypt’s world No. 22 Nada Abbas, who upset Team USA’s Olivia Blatchford Clyne in the second round.
“Nada is playing really good squash, we had a really good match in Paris,” Fiechter added. “I am sure she is going to be coming back for some revenge, so I need to be fully ready to go and on my toes, but I’m looking forward to it.”
Sobhy, the tournament’s two seed, dispatched Scotland’s Gergia Adderley 11-2, 11-6, 11-8 in thirty-three minutes.
“It felt a lot longer than thirty-three minutes, she gets almost everything back, so the first couple of games, I think my accuracy was on point, and I was happy about that,” Sobhy said. “In the third game, I think I thought as soon as my accuracy dropped off, I think she was getting more balls back, hitting more attacking shots, so I was telling myself to push hard and close it out and try to gamble a little bit.”
Sobhy will face Wales’ Emily Whitlock, who defeated U.S. wild card Riya Navani in three games.
“I think having this tournament before a US Open is huge in terms of preparation and in terms of gearing up for the U.S. Open,” Sobhy said. “But this is also a huge opportunity for a lot of us, so we’re all in it to win it.”
Watch the Southwestern Open quarterfinals live on squash.tv from 5pm local time, 6pm ET.