Team USA’s Olivia Weaver is through to the last eight of the CIB Palm Hills PSA World Championships after a five-game comeback in the third round against Belgium’s world No. 11 Nele Gilis Tuesday, May 12, in Giza, Egypt.
Weaver, the world No. 4 progressed to the third round with two 3-0 wins and met her biggest challenge so far in the form of the former world No. 4 Gilis.
Gilis hadn’t beaten Weaver in their previous four matches, but played some of her best squash as she dictated the tempo of the match. The Belgian nullified the threat of the American to move 2-0 ahead and was on the cusp of her first win over a top four ranked opponent since she beat World Champion Nour El Sherbini in El Gouna in April 2023.
However, Weaver dug in and battled back in the Egyptian heat, with some ferocious rallies pushing both players to their limits. It was Gilis who came off worse as Weaver slowly reeled her back in over the course of three games, eventually securing her spot in the last eight 8-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-8 in seventy-eight minutes.
“I’m not super pleased with how I played, especially with how I started the match, and she really punished me for it,” Weaver said. “She forced me to step up and really battle hard out there. Fortunately, I felt like I went into my tool kit, and I tried to use everything I had out there to battle my way back into the match. I tried to just make it physical, tried to get in front of her as much as possible, and I think that that ended up turning things into my favor.”
Weaver will play England’s world No. 9 Georgina Kennedy for a place in the semifinals Thursday, May 14, at 8:15pm local time, 1:15pm ET. Watch the match on SquashTV.
“In the first game, the ball was flying, and I was struggling to find my targets. And then I felt like I made an uncharacteristic amount of errors. I’m not really pleased with that. But I felt like when it mattered at the end of those last few games, I stepped up, and I’m really proud of that.”
Weaver is the lone American left in the draw after world No. 12 Amanda Sobhy lost out to world No. 2 and eight-time world champion Nour El Sherbini in the third round.
