Houston-based Muhammad Ashab Irfan delivered one of three major seeding upsets on day two of the Texas Open, overcoming No.8 seed Ng Eain Yow in a thrilling fifth-game tie-break to reach his first Gold-level quarter-final on the PSA Squash Tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a dramatic day of play in which rising stars Melvil Scianimanico and Nadien Elhammamy joined Ashab Irfan\u00a0in achieving career-best wins, it was the World No.44\u00a0– who trains and plays at the Houston Squash Club – who stole the show with an 11-7, 8-11, 4-11, 11-8, 14-12 win over the Malaysian World No.16 Eain Yeow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Playing in front of a packed-out crowd, Pakistan’s Ashab Irfan drew upon the home support to battle back from 2-1 to force a deciding game, and later save a match ball in a tense finish to the 73-minute contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite seeing 8-3 and 10-9 leads in the fifth slip into a subsequent tie-break, the 21-year-old converted his third match ball to set up a quarter-final tie with top seed and 2024 World Champion Diego Elias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the match, Ashab Irfan said: “That was intense and I’m really proud of myself. Obviously, Yow is a very hard player to play against, and he’s an amazing top-ten player. To win like this in my home club is amazing, and I’m really proud of myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“When you look out of the court and the crowd is cheering you on and supporting you, it’s huge. To reach my first Gold quarter-final at my home club is a big deal for me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elsewhere, World No.47 Scianimanico delivered a stunning performance as he fought back from a game behind to defeat former World No.1 Mohamed ElShorbagy by a 9-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-8 scoreline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 20-year-old Frenchman will play World No.3 Karim Gawad in tomorrow’s quarter-finals, after the former World Champion got the better of England’s Nick Wall in four games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the women’s draw, Egypt’s Nadien Elhammamy continued her career-best run in Houston after defeating No.7 seed Kenzy Ayman in a feisty all-Egyptian affair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 18-year-old, who is set to rise into the top 50 of the women’s rankings for the first time in her career next week, will join eight-time World Champion Nour ElSherbini and U.S. No.1 Olivia Weaver in the next round after the pair claimed respective straight game wins over Mariam Metwally and Nour Heikal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was one other seeding upset on the second day of play, with Swiss No.1 Dimitri Steinmann holding off a five-game comeback from No.6 seed Youssef Soliman to advance, with the latter retiring late on in the fifth game due to injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Results <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Men’s Round Two: <\/strong>[1] Diego Elias (PER) bt Timothy Brownell (USA) 3-0: 11-6, 11-5, 11-8 (40m); Muhammad Ashab Irfan (PAK) bt [8] Ng Eain Yow (MAS) 3-2: 11-7, 8-11, 4-11, 11-8, 14-12 (73m); [7] Aly Abou Eleinen (EGY) bt Moustafa Elsirty (EGY) 3-0: 11-5, 11-7, 11-4 (25m); [4] Victor Crouin (FRA) bt Nathan Lake (ENG) 3-1: 9-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-5 (57m); [3] Marwan ElShorbagy (ENG) bt Gregoire Marche (FRA) 3-1: 9-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-4 (46m); Dimitri Steinmann (SUI) bt [6] Youssef Soliman (EGY) 3-2: 11-9, 11-4, 6-11, 2-11, 9-5 ret. (69m); Melvil Scianimanico (FRA) bt [5] Mohamed ElShorbagy (ENG) 3-1: 9-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-8 (47m); [2] Karim Gawad (EGY) bt Nick Wall (ENG) 3-1: 11-9, 7-11, 11-6, 11-9 (62m)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women’s Round Two: <\/strong>[1] Nour ElSherbini (EGY) bt Mariam Metwally (EGY) 3-0: 11-7, 11-5, 11-9 (27m); [6] Georgia Adderley (SCO) bt Torrie Malik (ENG) 3-1: 11-6, 2-11, 11-7, 11-6 (44m); [5] Marina Stefanoni (USA) bt Hana Ramadan (EGY) 3-2: 11-3, 7-11, 11-3, 11-13, 11-7 (47m); [4] Salma Hany (EGY) bt Ka Yi Lee (HKG) 3-0: 11-5, 12-10, 11-1 (29m); [3] Georgina Kennedy (ENG) bt Grace Gear (ENG) 3-0: 11-4, 11-6, 11-0 (22m); Nadien Elhammamy (EGY) bt [7] Kenzy Ayman (EGY) 3-1: 11-9, 15-13, 8-11, 11-5 (47m); [8] Zeina Mickawy (EGY) bt Lucy Turmel (ENG) 3-1: 11-5, 11-2, 7-11, 11-8 (40m); [2] Olivia Weaver (USA) bt Nour Heikal (EGY) 3-0: 11-3, 11-6, 11-6 (31m)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Houston-based Muhammad Ashab Irfan delivered one of three major seeding upsets on day two of the Texas Open,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9477,"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-9476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","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