Team USA’s Olivia Weaver and Sabrina Sobhy are both through to the third round of the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions after second rounds wins in Grand Central Terminal, January 18-19, in New York City.
Fiechter, the tournament’s eight seed, dispatched Egypt’s world No. 17 Farida Mohamed in their first professional match up, 11-5, 11-3, 9-11, 11-4.
“That was a tricky one, one never played Farida before, she’s very dangerous and attacking,” Weaver said. “She doesn’t really allow for much momentum so I just tried to focus on my tactics, lost my way in the third a bit but happy to get back to it in the fourth.”
Weaver will take to the glass court in Grand Central again Saturday afternoon at 12:45pm against England’s Lucy Beecroft.
“I love playing here, in front of so many family and friends, a lot of people came up from Philadelphia,” Weaver said. “It was special to get a win in front of Gail Ramsay, the Princeton coach. She was my coach for four years there and it was so special to get a win I front of her.”
Sobhy joined Weaver in the third round with a Friday night win over fellow Ivy League graduate Sivasangari Subramaniam in three games.
“Coming into this match I thought it was going to be closer,” Sobhy said. “I knew it was going to be really hard – the score didn’t necessarily display how difficult it was. Siva [Subramaniam] is always such a threat; if you ever give her anything open it could be in the nick immediately. I tried to be focused and present. At the end when I had a comfortable lead I couldn’t think about winning at all because I knew she could have easily got six, seven, eight points in a row. She has that much talent and that much capability and it’s always going to be a battle regardless.”
Sobhy will take on Egypt’s six seed Nour El Tayeb in the third round Sunday night at 8:15pm.
Watch the action live from Grand Central on www.squash.tv. For tickets and more information visit tocsquash.com.