World No.1 Hania El Hammamy staved off a superb resurgence from fellow Egyptian Fayrouz Aboelkheir to book her spot in the semi finals of the British Open at the Rep Theatre in Birmingham.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
El Hammamy, who last won the event in 2022, charged into a 2-0 lead against the 20-year-old and looked on course to comfortably earning her place in the last four. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aboelkheir, who had never beaten El Hammamy on the PSA Squash Tour, surged back with her crisp attacking helping her restore parity. But the momentum swung back in El Hammamy\u2019s favour in the fifth, though, as the tournament\u2019s top seed held off Aboelkheir by a 11-9, 11-6, 7-11, 8-11, 11-4 scoreline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was a bit in and out with my focus and I think I am proud of how I mentally was able to get my focus back in the fifth,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am proud of how I was able to stick mentally to the game plan and I think that the fifth was the best game I have played \u2013 it was a positive way to finish the match and hopefully build up for the semi finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe season is not over yet, and I think it would be good to finish to get a step closer to the final and my second title here. It\u2019s such a big achievement and it was one of the goals to finish the season as World No.1 \u2013 I have other goals but I am proud and that is for my team and family who support me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
El Hammamy and Amina Orfi will reignite their rivalry when they go head-to-head for a place in the final on Saturday in what will be their sixth meeting this season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recently-crowned World Champion Orfi, who defeated El Hammamy on the way to her historic World Championships triumph, downed U.S. No.2 Amanda Sobhy 3-0 to make it back-to-back appearances in the British Open semi finals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Orfi, who\u2019s the youngest women\u2019s World Champion in history, battled back from 7-2 down in the first and remained in control from then to win 11-9, 11-4, 11-5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe\u2019s [Sobhy] a great player and it\u2019s our third time playing this year,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re used to each other\u2019s games \u2013 I think she played really well today and this tournament in general. Coming back from one of the worst injuries for any athlete is incredible and performing here in the quarter finals of the British Open is something to look up to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the men\u2019s event, reigning champion Diego Elias came through a stern test with Mohamad Zakaria to move a step closer to retaining his title. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elias, who became the second South American to lift the British Open last year, defeated the World Junior champion 3-1 for his place in the last four. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having lost the first, Zakaria deservedly equalised after digging deep against the former World Champion, but Elias kept his cool to win the third and fourth games, sealing a 11-9, 11-13, 11-1, 11-5 triumph. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe\u2019s [Zakaria] only 18 but he keeps getting better and better every week. I\u2019m not looking forward to the future!\u201d he said afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI had short matches in the last two rounds so it\u2019s good to have a match like this. I have a day off tomorrow, lots of time to recover and I\u2019ve got a big match in the semis in two days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elias faces Mostafa Asal in a rematch of last year\u2019s final after the World No.1 and World Champion swept aside Victor Crouin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asal, who last won the British Open in 2024, was dominant throughout his 11-8, 11-3, 11-4 win against the Frenchmen, maintaining his impressive run at this event having not dropped a game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cVictor is an awesome player, he is playing so well and I remember watching him in the juniors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe is someone who entertains the crowd a lot, and the battle was good today. I was really sharp from the beginning but it was a good match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have won the British Open already, so it is a big thing, a big title and a big stage, so I couldn\u2019t be more proud of playing in front of this amazing crowd.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Men\u2019s Quarter Finals (top half): <\/strong>[1] Mostafa Asal (EGY) bt. [6] Victor Crouin (FRA) 3-0: 11-8, 11-3, 11-4 (43m); [3] Diego Elias (PER) bt. [7] Mohamad Zakaria (EGY) 3-1: 11-9, 11-13, 11-1, 11-5 (70m)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women\u2019s Quarter Finals (top half): <\/strong>[1] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) bt. [7] Fayrouz Aboelkheir (EGY) 3-2: 11-9, 11-6, 7-11, 8-11, 11-4 (65m); [3] Amina Orfi (EGY) bt. Amanda Sobhy (USA) 3-0: 11-9, 11-4, 11-5 (41m)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" World No.1 Hania El Hammamy staved off a superb resurgence from fellow Egyptian Fayrouz Aboelkheir to book her<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13436,"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-13435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-squash"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Hania-El-Hammamy-.jpg",2560,1706,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Hania-El-Hammamy--150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Hania-El-Hammamy--300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Hania-El-Hammamy--768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Hania-El-Hammamy--1024x682.jpg",640,426,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Hania-El-Hammamy--1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Hania-El-Hammamy--2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Hania-El-Hammamy--825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Hania-El-Hammamy--590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Hania-El-Hammamy-.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13437,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13435\/revisions\/13437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}