World No.11 Mohamad Zakaria and World No.14 Aly Abou Eleinen advanced to their maiden gold-level finals on the PSA Squash Tour after overcoming former World Champions Karim Gawad and Mohamed ElShorbagy, respectively, on semi-finals day at the Karachi Open squash championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zakaria came into his meeting with top seed Gawad on the back of three straight defeats against the World No.4, the last of which was a well-contested five-game loss in the quarter-finals of the U.S. Open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the two-time World Junior Champion reversed the form book with a near-faultless performance which limited the attacking prowess of Gawad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After powering through a first-game win, the crucial moments in the match came late on in the second when locked in at 9-9, with 18-year-old Zakaria seeing consecutive no-let and yes-let decisions upgraded to strokes upon review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From there, Zakaria showed no let-up, continually pressurising Gawad with some immaculate line hitting down the backhand wall and moving through to an 11-3, 11-9, 11-4 victory after 52 minutes of play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the match, Zakaria said: “I lost to Gawad the last three times I played him. I watched back some of those matches today and something clicked. I knew what I was going to do and I’m so happy with how it turned out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The last four times, he was pinning me down the backhand wall. He was always taking a further step down the ‘T’ and I was having to take the big line around him. Today I tried to hit it tight and move beside him, so if he was going to do that, I would be right next to him. Today, my counter game was so good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It’s so difficult to play against Karim. He has so many gears to shift to. I’m still a bit in disbelief at how well my plan turned out.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No.6 seed Eleinen, meanwhile, defeated former World No.1 ElShorbagy in commanding style, overcoming ‘The Beast’ by an 11-4, 11-8, 11-6 scoreline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 26-year-old Alexandrian picked up where he left off from his superb three-game win over Mohamed’s brother, Marwan, in the previous round, delivering an intelligent performance which neutralised the threats of the attack-minded ElShorbagy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the women’s draw, No.2 seed Sivasangari Subramaniam and top seed Amina Orfi set up a title-deciding showdown after defeating Aifa Azman and Nada Abbas, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
World No.7 Sivasangari was given a stern examination by compatriot Azman throughout their 58 minutes on court, with the pair trading games to reach a decider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After seeing a match ball slip through her grasp at the backend of the fourth, Sivasangari regained her composure impressively to eventually prevail past the No.8 seed by an 11-8, 6-11, 11-9, 12-14, 11-5 scoreline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the match, Sivasangari said: “I knew Aifa was going to come in strong today, especially after beating Fayrouz in three yesterday. She did the same thing today and put me under a lot of pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I couldn’t quite find my game, but I just tried to stick in and play it point by point and not overthink it. I just tried to stay as composed as I could, and I’m glad that I did \u2013 it worked out in the end. It was a bit more comfortable at the backend of the fifth game because I managed to get a bit more of a lead on the scoreboard.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the first match of the day, World No.3 Amina Orfi eased past an under-the-weather Nada Abbas to reach her sixth final of the 2025\/26 PSA Squash Tour season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As was the case in her opening two matches of the event against Mariam Metwally and Farida Mohamed, No.4 seed Abbas’ struggles with illness continued in the one-sided semi-final match, with Orfi rarely having to hit top gear during her comfortable 11-4, 11-6, 11-5 victory inside DA Creek Club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SEMI-FINAL RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Men’s:<\/strong> [5] Mohamad Zakaria (EGY) bt [1] Karim Gawad (EGY) 3-0: 11-3, 11-9, 11-4 (52m); [6] Aly Abou Eleinen (EGY) bt [4] Mohamed ElShorbagy (ENG) 3-0: 11-4, 11-8, 11-6 (31m)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women’s: <\/strong>[1] Amina Orfi (EGY) bt [4] Nada Abbas (EGY) 3-0: 11-4, 11-6, 11-5 (26m); [2] Sivasangari Subramaniam (MAS) bt [8] Aifa Azman (MAS) 3-2: 11-8, 6-11, 11-9, 12-14, 11-5 (58m)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" World No.11 Mohamad Zakaria and World No.14 Aly Abou Eleinen advanced to their maiden gold-level finals on the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7786,"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-7785","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