Team USA will aim to match its best WSF Women’s World Team Championship finish of fifth place after exiting the quarterfinals against top-seeded Egypt Thursday morning at Palais Des Sports Robert Charpentier in Paris, France.
Egypt’s lineup consisted of the top three ranked players in the world according to PSA Tour’s December rankings, while the U.S. fielded a lineup led by world No. 7 Amanda Sobhy, world No. 30 Olivia Blatchford and University of Pennsylvania sophomore Reeham Sedky.
Blatchford and world No. 3 Nouran Gohar led off the matches on the glass court, which the nineteen-year-old Egyptian phenom claimed in three games and thirty minutes.
Sobhy and world No. 1 El Sherbini entered the second match with Sobhy having won their most recent encounter in August’s Hong Kong Open. El Sherbini avenged her loss, taking out Sobhy in a close four games 11-7, 11-9, 4-11, 13-11 in forty-two minutes to earn the top seeds a spot in the semifinals.
Sedky and El Welily contested a best of three dead rubber match with El Welily completing the sweep 12-10, 11-5.
“The girls gave their best but we lost to better players, ” said Thierry Lincou, U.S. National Coach. “Olivia played Nouran Gohar and logically lost in three, although she got better and better finding more solutions and adapting to the high Pace. Olivia played top players since the start and she is hanging in there.”
“Amanda was keen to repeat her performance from Hong Kong, but Sherbini was up for it too, ” Lincou said. “Nour played sublime squash for two games while Amanda could not find her typical lengths and angles of attacks on that very dead court. In the third Amanda displayed world class squash, with winners and deception from everywhere on court then eventually lost 13/11 in the fourth.”
“Reeham did not look intimidated at all and was hitting the ball with a lot of intensity as usual with some great variation in the front. Overall it was a good experience and we are already preparing to finish top five.”
The seventh-seeded U.S. returns to the glass court Friday where they will take on five seeds France or six seeds Australia. Live stream the match at 2pm local time, 8am ET on the Women’s World Team Championship live streaming page.
For more reports, images and more information visit the WSF Women’s World Team Championship official website.
