Japan’s World No.7 Satomi Watanabe came through an entertaining five-game duel with Amanda Sobhy at The Wimbledon Club to reach the semi-finals of the Optasia Championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Watanabe, who secured her biggest PSA title when she won the 2024 Optasia Championships, has recorded her third straight semi-final appearance at this tournament after prevailing by an 8-11, 14-12, 11-6, 6-11, 11-7 scoreline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 27-year-old came back from 2-0 down to defeat the American No.2 at the same stage of the Optasia Championships almost exactly a year ago, and she managed to claim the victory once again to set up a clash with World No.1 Hania El Hammamy next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Amanda and I have played a lot of times before and the head-to-heads are really even. It’s always a really tough battle, an enjoyable battle, and I always love playing Amanda,” said Watanabe afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I obviously lost to her in Chicago [at the Windy City Open] recently, so I think it was a home advantage for me today and I’m very happy to get through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It means a lot to be playing here. All the supporters are great and all my support team are here, so I’m definitely looking forward to tomorrow’s semi-finals.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defending champion El Hammamy held off a strong showing from unseeded Malaysian Rachel Arnold in three games to reach the last four for the second time in as many years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
El Hammamy could still face World No.2 Nour El Sherbini in the title decider after El Sherbini beat Nada Abbas in straight games to set up a semi-final clash with local favourite Georgina Kennedy. El Sherbini will take the No.1 ranking off El Hammamy if she betters her fellow Egyptian’s result at this tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I always enjoy playing against Satomi, she’s attacking as well,” said El Hammamy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We’ve played twice this season and we played here in the semis last year, so it’s going to be a rematch and I’m looking forward to it. It’s been a long time since my last event at the beginning of February. I think two days ago, I was a little bit edgy, and now I’ve gotten used to the venue and the tournament. I was way sharper and ready for today.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, men’s World No.1 Mostafa Asal has now made it 21 successive matches without dropping a single game after defeating former World No.1 Mohamed ElShorbagy 3-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asal, who has now won 63 consecutive games, was at his explosive best from the outset and completed an 11-4, 11-7, 11-8 victory to set up a meeting with Welshman Joel Makin, who beat ElShorbagy’s younger brother, Marwan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“He’s a legend of the game, he’s so clever, and his IQ in squash is second to none,” said Asal afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“He’s very impressive in his tactics and he does a lot of mathematics on the squash court. He’s a beast, there is no way I would be playing like that at 35 years of age. He’s one of the characters that changed squash. He’s battled through lots of legends like Ramy [Ashour] and we’ve been watching him since we were kids in El Gouna.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elsewhere in Wimbledon, No.2 seed Karim Gawad and No.3 seed Diego Elias have set up a semi-final showdown after claiming clinical straight-game wins over Youssef Ibrahim and Noor Zaman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Noor is a very dangerous player, so I had to be at 100 per cent since the first point of the match, and I’m very happy that I did that,” said Elias afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Noor is very exciting to watch and it’s great to have another Pakistani player near the top of the rankings. I’m happy I could control the pace of the game, my lines were working really well. It’s been a while since I’ve been playing at this level. I’m very happy to be slowly getting back to my level and hopefully I can keep getting better.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quarter-final results: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Men’s: <\/strong>[1] Mostafa Asal (EGY) bt [7] Mohamed ElShorbagy (ENG) 3-0: 11-4, 11-7, 11-8 (45m); [4] Joel Makin (WAL) bt [6] Marwan ElShorbagy (ENG) 3-0: 11-5, 11-7, 11-2 (46m); [3] Diego Elias (PER) bt Noor Zaman (PAK): 3-0: 11-2, 11-7, 11-5 (28m); [2] Karim Gawad (EGY) bt [5] Youssef Ibrahim (EGY) 3-0: 11-4, 11-5, 13-11 (54m)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women’s: <\/strong>[1] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) bt Rachel Arnold (MAS) 3-0: 11-8, 11-6, 11-8 (37m); [3] Satomi Watanabe (JPN) bt [5] Amanda Sobhy (USA) 3-2: 8-11, 14-12, 11-6, 6-11, 11-7 (62m); [4] Georgina Kennedy (ENG) bt [8] Farida Mohamed (EGY) 3-0: 11-4, 11-4, 15-13 (33m); [2] Nour ElSherbini (EGY) bt [6] Nada Abbas (EGY)3-0: 11-9, 11-5, 11-2 (26m)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Japan’s World No.7 Satomi Watanabe came through an entertaining five-game duel with Amanda Sobhy at The Wimbledon Club<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-10975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-squash"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t