Teenage duo Nadien Elhammamy and Jana Swaify starred on a dramatic second day at the Squash on Fire Open, a day which also saw Veer Chotrani stage another impressive fightback while Leonel Cardenas won a thriller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eighteen-year-old Elhammamy, the runner-up at last year\u2019s World Junior Championships, triumphed 11-9, 11-7, 8-11, 11-9 in her second-round 40-minute showdown over Malaysian No.5 seed Aira Azman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Displaying plenty of power and aggression from the off, Elhammamy moved swiftly into a two-game lead only to be pegged back in the third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Malaysian then stormed out to a 6-2 lead in game four, at which point a deciding game looked likely, but Elhammamy stuck to her game plan and continued to attack, showing some impressive athleticism along the way too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6-2 soon became 6-6 which in turn became 9-9, and Elhammamy was celebrating victory just two rallies later, with Azman unable to clear a short forehand drop on match ball in the front-right corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elhammamy let out a roar of emotion and could not help but smile as she headed off court, knowing that a first quarter-final appearance in a Bronze-level event awaited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her opponent in that quarter-final will be third seed Melissa Alves, who came through a nail-biting, five-game tussle with a 11-6, 6-11, 8-11, 11-6, 11-9 win over Lucy Beecroft on the glass court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The French No.1 found herself 2-1 down and then \u2013 having won game four to force a decider \u2013 trailed 8-5 in the fifth, but dug deep to get herself over the line 11-9, helped by winning a breathtaking rally at 9-9, which lasted more than a minute and had both players scrambling to all corners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The drama showed no signs of letting up in the match that followed, either, as Chotrani staged a second straight comeback to sink No.4 seed Baptise Masotti 11-6, 7-11, 8-11, 11-1, 11-9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chotrani had recovered from 2-1, 8-2 down to beat Balazs Farkas in round one, and once again needed all five games to beat France\u2019s Masotti 24 hours later, clinging on in a tension-filled fifth game, in which he saw five match balls come and go from 10-4 up, before taking the sixth with a smart backhand drop at 10-9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chotrani will now face Declan James, who himself had to fight back from 2-0 down to win in five against Muhammad Asim Khan, closing out a 72-minute duel 5-11, 6-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remarkably, that wasn\u2019t event the end of the five-gamers in the afternoon session, as No.2 seed Leonel Cardenas came out on top of another epic against Velavan Senthilkumar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For much of their 64-minute encounter it looked as though the Indian southpaw might cause a sizable upset, but Cardenas came up clutch in the closing stages, most notably on a sensational match ball, when he showed some remarkable retrieval skills to keep a 26-shot rally alive, before flicking a forehand winner down the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If anyone inside the Squash on Fire club thought the drama was finished for the day as the evening session got underway, they were in for a shock, as 18-year-old Swaify \u2013 playing in her first ever Bronze event \u2013 produced a clinical display to beat fourth seed Tesni Murphy 11-6, 11-5, 11-6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Alexandrian has only ever played a World-level event in on home soil in Egypt before, but showcased her talent in a clinical display to sink the Welsh No.1 here, winning 11-6, 11-5, 11-6 in just 28 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was then followed by an entertaining battle between top seed Mohamed Elshorbagy and rising star Noor Zaman, which saw \u2018The Beast\u2019 emerge victorious after a hard-fought fourth-game tiebreak in 11-6, 6-11, 11-6, 15-13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was still time for two more five-game encounters, too \u2013 the fifth and sixth of the day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first of those two saw Mohamed Elsherbini edge Patrick Rooney 11-8, 11-8, 7-11, 11-13, 11-5 over 61 minutes, while the second ended in victory for Fares Dessouky, as he outlasted Sam Todd 15-17, 11-9, 11-8, 10-12, 11-4 on the glass court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Results: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Men\u2019s Round Two<\/strong>: [6] Declan James (ENG) bt. Muhammad Asim Khan (PAK) 3-2: 5-11, 6-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-7 (72m); Veer Chotrani (IND) bt. [4] Baptiste Masotti (FRA) 3-2: 11-6, 7-11, 8-11, 11-1, 11-9 (52m); Karim El Hammamy (EGY) bt. [5] Kareem El Torkey (EGY) 3-0: 11-6, 11-8, 11-1 (35m); [2] Leonel Cardenas (MEX) bt. Velavan Senthilkumar (IND) 3-2: 4-11, 11-5, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8 (64m); [1] Mohamed ElShorbagy (ENG) bt. Noor Zaman (PAK) 3-1: 11-6, 6-11, 11-6, 15-13 (53m); [8] Mohamed ElSherbini (EGY) bt. Patrick Rooney (ENG) 3-2: 11-8, 11-8, 7-11, 11-13, 11-5 (61m); [7] Raphael Kandra (GER) bt. Nathan Lake (ENG) 3-0: 11-9, 11-7, 11-8 (35m); [3] Fares Dessouky (EGY) bt. Sam Todd (ENG)3-2: 15-17, 11-9, 11-8, 10-12, 11-4 (81m)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women\u2019s Round Two<\/strong>: Nadien Elhammamy (EGY) bt. [5] Aira Azman (MAS) 3-1: 11-9, 11-7, 8-11, 11-9 (40m); [3] Melissa Alves (FRA) bt. Lucy Beecroft (ENG) 3-2: 11-6, 6-11, 8-11, 11-6, 11-9 (65m); [1] Georgina Kennedy (ENG) bt. Menna Hamed (EGY) 3-0: 11-4, 11-5, 11-6 (27m); [6] Hana Moataz (EGY) bt. Alina Bushma (UKR) 3-1: 11-5, 16-14, 9-11, 11-7 (44m); Jana Swaify (EGY) bt. [4] Tesni Murphy (WAL) 3-0: 11-6, 11-5, 11-6 (28m); Sabrina Sobhy (USA) bt. [8] Zeina Mickawy (EGY) 3-1: 11-7, 9-11, 11-8, 11-8 (40m); [2] Sana Ibrahim (EGY) bt. Habiba Hani (EGY) 3-1: 11-4, 7-11, 11-6, 11-5 (39m); [7] Anahat Singh (IND) bt. Hayley Ward (RSA) 3-1: 11-5, 11-8, 12-14, 11-5 (32m); [3] Fares Dessouky (EGY) bt. Sam Todd (ENG) 3-2: 15-17, 11-9, 11-8, 10-12, 11-4 (81m)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Teenage duo Nadien Elhammamy and Jana Swaify starred on a dramatic second day at the Squash on Fire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8603,"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-8601","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\/2026\/01\/Nadien-Elhammamy-beats-Aira-Azman1.jpg",2002,1127,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Nadien-Elhammamy-beats-Aira-Azman1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Nadien-Elhammamy-beats-Aira-Azman1-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Nadien-Elhammamy-beats-Aira-Azman1-768x432.jpg",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Nadien-Elhammamy-beats-Aira-Azman1-1024x576.jpg",640,360,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Nadien-Elhammamy-beats-Aira-Azman1-1536x865.jpg",1536,865,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Nadien-Elhammamy-beats-Aira-Azman1.jpg",2002,1127,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Nadien-Elhammamy-beats-Aira-Azman1-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Nadien-Elhammamy-beats-Aira-Azman1-590x410.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\/2026\/01\/Nadien-Elhammamy-beats-Aira-Azman1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8601","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=8601"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8605,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8601\/revisions\/8605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}