England No.1 Georgina Kennedy has scored her first ever win over one of the top three players after the 29-year-old upset World No.1 Hania El Hammamy with a 3-1 victory to reach the final of the London Squash Classic taking place this week at Alexandra Palace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
London-based Kennedy is the first English player to reach the final of the prestigious London Classic, beating El Hammamy of Egypt by an 11-6, 14-12, 7-11, 11-8 scoreline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It marks the first time in 26 matches that Kennedy has beaten one of the world\u2019s top three players and the World No.8 will play World Champion Amina Orfi in Sunday\u2019s title decider. Orfi beat Malaysia\u2019s Sivasangari Subramaniam to advance to the final, where she will defend the title she won 12 months ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo get a win over the World No.1 is a career highlight,\u201d Kennedy said after reaching her 26th final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was so enjoyable. So many of the most important people in my life are here today and that helped. I feel I\u2019m in a good place with my squash and I can go out and enjoy myself. Hania is such a class act and playing her is so enjoyable, I feel like we\u2019re both very physical and we like those long rallies, so I was excited just for the challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt hasn\u2019t sunk in. My family don\u2019t travel much with me and my boyfriend never comes, he\u2019s a busy guy with his football, so being able to experience this moment with all of those people is so special.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Orfi had lost her last two matches against Sivasangari, but the World No.2 was in imperious form as she powered to an 11-8, 11-9, 11-6 victory against the 2024 champion. Orfi will now appear in her 22nd PSA final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI lost to her the last two times, so coming here I knew the pressure would have been on her,\u201d said Orfi afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI just tried to focus and I\u2019m really happy with the win today. I wanted to get the ball to the back at the beginning, she was slowing the pace down a bit and I could sense that, so that\u2019s why I was trying to take it as early as possible. I didn\u2019t want to overdo it though because she is very skilful at the front of the court.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No.1 seed Paul Coll and No.2 seed Victor Crouin will contest the men\u2019s final following respective wins over Malaysia\u2019s Ng Eain Yow and England No.1 Marwan ElShorbagy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coll now has 11 wins in a row at this tournament after triumphing in 2023 and 2024, while he also marked an 11th straight win over Eain Yow following an 11-7, 11-1, 11-3 victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe\u2019s always trying to analyse and come up with something new, but I\u2019m pretty clear in my game plan,\u201d said Coll ahead of his 59th PSA final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was confident, but in the first game I had to work out what patterns he was going to try and throw at me. I mainly had to focus on my game, execute it well and I was confident I would get the win. I\u2019m controlling the pace well and I\u2019m moving at a different pace to what I\u2019m hitting at which adds a bit of deception. I\u2019ve struggled with that in the past, but it\u2019s all clicking at the moment. I\u2019m seeing the ball like a million dollars out there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Crouin has marked his London Classic debut with a final appearance after the World No.6 defeated ElShorbagy by an 11-7 scoreline in all three of their games to reach his 36th PSA final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of my most mature performances so far,\u201d said Crouin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to put on such a performance in the semi-final against Marwan, who has been playing such tremendous squash this week. I knew he was a threat, we haven\u2019t played for a long time, so I was looking forward to that battle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Result <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Men\u2019s Semi-Finals: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [1] Paul Coll (NZL) bt Ng Eain Yow (MAS) 3-0: 11-7, 11-1, 11-3 (44m)<\/p>\n\n\n\n [2] Victor Crouin (FRA) bt [3] Marwan ElShorbagy (ENG) 3-0: 11-7, 11-7, 11-7 (36m)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women\u2019s Semi-Finals: 2026 London Squash Classic<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [5] Georgina Kennedy (ENG) bt [1] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) 3-1: 11-6, 14-12, 7-11, 11-8 (71m)<\/p>\n\n\n\n [2] Amina Orfi (EGY) bt [3] Sivasangari Subramaniam (MAS) 3-0: 11-8, 11-9, 11-6 (46m)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" England No.1 Georgina Kennedy has scored her first ever win over one of the top three players after<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15474,"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-15472","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