Amanda Sobhy’s first season as a full-time professional is off to a winning start in Shanghai, China, where the Pan American Games triple gold medalist defeated Malaysia’s Delia Arnold in the first round of the $58, 000 PSA Stars on the Bund China Open Thursday.
After reaching the main draw as a qualifier, Arnold entered the match as the higher-ranked player according to September’s world rankings in which she reached a career high of world No. 12. Sobhy, however, dropped from world No. 10 to world No. 19 due to a lack of exposures factoring into the rankings algorithm.
Sobhy defeated Arnold in each of their three previous encounters in three games and less than thirty minutes, and their China Open match followed suit with Sobhy defeating Arnold 11-5, 11-1, 11-6 in twenty-three minutes.
The Harvard graduate now takes on English world No. 11 Emma Beddoes at 3pm local time, 3am ET, in Friday’s quarterfinals. Beddoes defeated Sobhy in their last match up during the 2014 Carol Weymuller Open.
The China Open is Sobhy’s first of a string of tournaments this fall. The Harvard graduate is the top seed in the NetSuite Open later this month in San Francisco, before heading to Philadelphia for the first world series tournament of the season—the Delaware Investments U.S. Open at Drexel University, October 8-17.
For more information on the China Open, visit the official tournament page.
Through to the quarterfinals of the #ChinaOpen after beating Delia Arnold 3-0. Now playing Emma Beddoes tomorrow!???? pic.twitter.com/BOmkES5j0L
— Amanda Sobhy (@itssobhytime) September 3, 2015
