World No.15 Salma Hany progressed to her first Gold-level semi-final since October 2023 after toppling World No.7 Satomi Watanabe in four games at the Silicon Valley Open squash championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seventh seeded Hany’s impressive victory saw her join unseeded compatriot Kareem El Torkey in the winners’ circle at Squash Zone, after the 21-year-old claimed a bittersweet victory over an injury-stricken Aly Abou Eleinen to reach his maiden Gold-level semi-final on the PSA Squash Tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a match ultimately decided by fine margins, it was the sublime short game of Hany that proved decisive against Watanabe, with the 29-year-old moving through to take the quarter-final win by an 11-13, 11-8, 11-9, 11-8 scoreline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In all four games, it was Hany who came out of the blocks the quickest, racing into 7-4, 5-1, 6-2, and 6-3 leads which ultimately left Watanabe with too much work to do. Hany’s reward is a semi-final meeting with Malaysian No.1 Sivasangari Subramaniam, who got the better of home favourite Amanda Sobhy in a hard-fought four-game duel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the match, Hany said: “Satomi has been playing amazingly lately. I thought if she was to win today, she would need to earn it and dig really deep. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I love the city, I love the event and I love the crowd here as well. I thought it was the perfect week to play some great squash. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The tour is so strong nowadays. There are about 16 players all fighting to be in the top ten and it’s really hard to keep momentum. I feel I’m playing as well now as I was when I was at World No.7\u2033<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No.3 seed Sivasangari advanced to the semi-finals of the Silicon Valley Open after prevailing over USA\u2019s Amanda Sobhy in a hard-fought four-game duel. In a well-contested match which never saw either player take significant leads on the scoreboard, it was Sivasangari who edged out the match by a 12-10, 12-10, 8-11, 11-6 scoreline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With both players renowned for their mid-court variety and skill, the pair looked to implement straight lines whenever possible throughout the match, trading points into tie-breaks in both the first and second games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, on both occasions, it was Malaysian No.1 Sivasangari who came out on top, with the World No.8 taking a pair of 12-10 wins to move two games up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The inevitable Sobhy response arrived in game three, with the World No.9 continuing to test Sivasangari with her clever use of angles at the front of the court and reducing the deficit to 2-1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Sivasangari wasn\u2019t to be denied the victory, with the 26-year-old moving through to set up a semi-final with No.7 seed Salma Hany after 48 minutes of hard-fought play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the match, Sivasangari said: \u201cIt\u2019s always tough playing Amanda, she\u2019s so skilful. I just tried to focus on my game and despite a lot of errors on my part, I\u2019m glad I managed to sneak the win in four games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI always have to be ready for whatever is coming from her. She\u2019s really good in the middle, she\u2019s a wonderful player. I just tried to hang in there every point and fight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, World No.35 El Torkey’s dream run in California continued after he progressed past close friend Eleinen by a 6-11, 11-5, 11-3, 11-7 scoreline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite opening up the match in strong style, finding an accurate line and length and moving into a one-game lead, Eleinen began clutching his lower back in pain as the second game commenced, with the issue becoming ever more apparent as the match progressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eleinen battled on throughout the match gamely, but rarely troubled El Torkey thereafter, with the unseeded Egyptian wrapping up the win after 38 minutes of play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Aly has always been a big brother to me,” El Torkey admitted after the match. “We’ve trained together for the last couple of months, and he always pushes me and has given me so much advice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’m not happy to win this way [with Eleinen struggling with injury], I knew that if he wasn’t hurting as much it would have gone another way. I’m not feeling that fire inside me, that winning feeling, that’s not today.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
El Torkey will face former World No.1 Karim Gawad in tomorrow’s semi-finals after ‘The Baby-Faced Assassin’ put in a masterful display to hold off rising star of the sport, Jonah Bryant, in three games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other two winners in the men’s event were World No.1 Mostafa Asal and World No.9 Victor Crouin, who will now face off for a spot in the title decider. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
French No.1 Crouin took his record at the start of the 2025\/26 season to nine wins from 10 matches following a clinical straight games win over England’s Curtis Malik, while top seed Asal got the better of the other Frenchman in the draw, Baptiste Masotti, by an 11-9, 11-5, 11-3 scoreline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elsewhere, training partners Georgina Kennedy and Olivia Weaver set up a semi-final date with one another after the pair claimed respective wins over Egyptian duo Malak Khafagy and Sana Ibrahim. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kennedy, who over the summer joined Weaver as one of the players working under the guidance of coach Rod Martin, delivered a much-improved performance from her edgy second-round win over Rachel Arnold, getting the better of the unseeded Khafagy by an 11-6, 11-6, 11-3 scoreline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. No.1 Weaver, meanwhile, continued her quest for a second consecutive title at Squash Zone with a commanding 11-6, 11-6, 11-5 win over Egypt’s Ibrahim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Results <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Men’s Quarter-Finals: <\/strong>[1] Mostafa Asal (EGY) bt [6] Baptiste Masotti (FRA) 3-0: 11-9, 11-5, 11-3 (43m); [5] Victor Crouin (FRA) bt Curtis Malik (ENG) 3-0: 12-10, 11-7, 11-9 (53m); Kareem El Torkey (EGY) bt [4] Aly Abou Eleinen (EGY) 3-1: 6-11, 11-5, 11-3, 11-7 (38m); [2] Karim Gawad (EGY) bt [8] Jonah Bryant (ENG) 3-0: 11-7, 11-8, 11-3 (39m)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women’s Quarter-Finals: <\/strong>[1] Olivia Weaver (USA) bt Sana Ibrahim (EGY) 3-0: 11-6, 11-6, 11-5 (38m); [4] Georgina Kennedy (ENG) bt Malak Khafagy (EGY) 3-0: 11-6, 11-6, 11-3 (27m); [3] Sivasangari Subramaniam (MAS) bt [5] Amanda Sobhy (USA) 3-1: 12-10, 12-10, 8-11, 11-6 (48m); [7] Salma Hany (EGY) bt [2] Satomi Watanabe (JPN) 3-1: 11-13, 11-8, 11-9, 11-8 (52m)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" World No.15 Salma Hany progressed to her first Gold-level semi-final since October 2023 after toppling World No.7 Satomi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4611,"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":[44],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-4610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-squash"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Squash-Salma-Hany_compressed-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Squash-Salma-Hany_compressed-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Squash-Salma-Hany_compressed-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Squash-Salma-Hany_compressed-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Squash-Salma-Hany_compressed-1024x683.jpg",640,427,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Squash-Salma-Hany_compressed-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Squash-Salma-Hany_compressed-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Squash-Salma-Hany_compressed-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Squash-Salma-Hany_compressed-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"International<\/a>","tag_info":"International","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Squash-Salma-Hany_compressed-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4610","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=4610"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4615,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4610\/revisions\/4615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}