World No. 7 Olivia Weaver has reached the last eight of the PSA World Championships for the first time in her career after a resolute three game victory over world No. 13 Salma Hany Sunday, May 13, in Cairo, Egypt.
Weaver, the tournament’s eight seed, fulfilled her seeding by recording three straight 3-0 victories against lower-ranked opposition. Weaver’s toughest test came in the round of sixteen Sunday against Hany, the tournament’s ten seed. Weaver overcame Hany in a forty-nine-minute encounter 11-9, 11-5, 11-9.
“I was happy with my consistency up to this point and was hoping to keep that going,” Weaver said. “Salma is such a dangerous opponent and it was going to be extremely tough out there. I needed to not focus on that and needed to focus on putting the ball where I needed to be and focus on my game plan.”
Weaver will bid to become just the second American to ever reach a World Championship semifinal on Wednesday, May 15, when she faces Egypt’s world No. 19 Fayrouz Abouelkheir. Abouelkheir pulled off the tournament’s biggest upset to date on Sunday when she upset Belgium’s world No. 4 Nele Gilis.
“I’ve never played Fayrouz,” Weaver said. “I’m going to enjoy this one, making it into the quarters for the first time and starting tomorrow I’ll have a rest day and then I’ll get back to work and continue preparing for the next round.”
Watch the match live on www.squash.tv Thursday at 12:3pm ET.