World No.22 Yahya Elnawasany has become the lowest ranked player in eight years to book his spot in the semi finals of the British Open squash championships following his sensational victory over former World Champion Karim Gawad at the Rep Theatre in Birmingham.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Germany\u2019s Raphael Kandra went through qualification back in 2018 and went on to reach the last four where he was beaten by eventual winner Miguel Rodriguez in Hull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elnawasany, who had already caused a huge upset in round three against England No.1 Marwan ElShorbagy, went one better this evening to progress to his maiden Diamond semi-final by axing former World No.1 Gawad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 24-year-old, who had never won a match at the British Open before this year\u2019s event, saw his excellent defensive work and variety in attack rewarded with a 11-8, 8-11, 14-12, 11-9 triumph after a monumental 84-minute battle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t imagine it!\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was 9-5 up and as soon as he [Gawad] came back to 9-9, especially after we played two incredible rallies, I didn\u2019t lose my head or anything \u2013 he just played too good. I thought he was going to get back at me as he always does. I\u2019m still in disbelief! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen he won the World Champs I was training with the same coach back home and I was watching his match against Ramy [Ashour]. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some players on Tour I\u2019ve been imagining playing against and today\u2019s match with Karim was how I imagined it. It was great squash and I knew I had to up my level again after my last match. It\u2019s incredible!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two-time winner Paul Coll will face Elnawasany for a place in Sunday\u2019s final following the New Zealander\u2019s solid display against Aly Abou Eleinen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coll, who clinched back-to-back British Open titles in 2021 and 2022, was resolute throughout against the Egyptian to notch a 13-11, 11-6, 11-2 win, maintaining his perfect streak in Birmingham this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cVery happy. I had a very specific game plan, but I had a brain fart at 5-2 in the first when Roman definitely said something into the mic, it completely distracted me and I went 8-2 down and I went into grind mode then!\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI stayed away from the tin and let him hit as many winners as he wanted, after that he sort of knew my groove a bit but I was a bit annoyed at the start there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cImpressive, very impressive [on Elnawsany\u2019s win over Gawad]. I trained with him this morning and I can tell the natural speed he\u2019s got. I knew he was going to pose a threat to Karim and I was intrigued to see how he\u2019d fare up against such a classy player in Karim. Hats off to him, I was really impressed with how he played.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the women\u2019s event, four-time British Open champion Nour ElSherbini extinguished home hopes after vanquishing England\u2019s No.1 Gina Kennedy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
ElSherbini, who last tasted success at this tournament in 2023, dominated proceedings against the World No.8 to win 11-9, 11-4, 11-5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI always get my game plan and she [Kennedy] is very physical, very tough and she has been playing really good in the last phase of the season, so I was definitely prepared and made sure I was ready from the first point,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis venue [The Rep Theatre] is amazing, and I was always love playing here even if they are cheering for Gina, and they have to of course. But when she plays in Egypt it\u2019s going to be on the other side, so I knew that before the match and I thought the crowd put more pressure on her than me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey were with Gina tonight, but I hope they are with me tomorrow night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ElSherbini will meet Satomi Watanabe tomorrow evening after the Japanese No.1 progressed to the last four in circumstances she wouldn\u2019t have wanted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The World No.6 was awarded a walkover after U.S. No.1 Olivia Weaver withdrew before the match following an injury sustained during the warm-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Men\u2019s Quarter Finals (bottom half)<\/strong> Women\u2019s Quarter Finals (bottom half)<\/strong> World No.22 Yahya Elnawasany has become the lowest ranked player in eight years to book his spot in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13491,"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-13490","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\/Yahya-Elnawasany-celebration.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Yahya-Elnawasany-celebration-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Yahya-Elnawasany-celebration-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Yahya-Elnawasany-celebration-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Yahya-Elnawasany-celebration-1024x683.jpg",640,427,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Yahya-Elnawasany-celebration-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Yahya-Elnawasany-celebration-2048x1366.jpg",2048,1366,true],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Yahya-Elnawasany-celebration-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Yahya-Elnawasany-celebration-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\/Yahya-Elnawasany-celebration.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13490","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=13490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13492,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13490\/revisions\/13492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Yahya Elnawasany (EGY) bt. [4] Karim Gawad (EGY) 3-1: 11-8, 8-11, 14-12, 11-9 (84m)
[2] Paul Coll (NZL) bt. [11] Aly Abou Eleinen (EGY) 3-0: 13-11, 11-6, 11-2 (56m)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[6] Satomi Watanabe (JPN) W\/O [4] Olivia Weaver (USA)
[2] Nour ElSherbini (EGY) bt. Georgina Kennedy (ENG) 3-0: 11-9, 11-4, 11-5 (32m)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"