End of the Line for Blatchford as Sobhy steers path into NetSuite semi-finals in San Francisco
By NATHAN CLARKE in San Francisco
American number one Amanda Sobhy lived up to her billing as the number one seed at the 2015 NetSuite Open PSA W25 tournament as she emphatically saw of Welsh challenger Tesni Evans in the marquee match-up of the quarter-finals in San Francisco.
Recent Harvard-graduate Sobhy, World No.19, dispatched the World No.28 3-0 after just 26 minutes to the delight of the partisan crowd and cruise into the semi-finals where she will be hoping to overcome Danish challenger Line Hansen and move into the finale.
“I love playing in the US because the crowd is so amazing and when people come and support me it makes me want to push harder and play my best and to play at this venue is amazing,” said Sobhy.
“I’ve finally finished with school so this year my focus is to try and enjoy being a full-time pro and not to try and squeeze in all the events I haven’t played due to studying.
“If I can stay injury free and keep pushing, hopefully I can crack the single digits in the rankings and put in some good performances in the bigger tournaments and see how it all goes.”
The bottom half of the draw will be an all-English affair between number two seed Sarah-Jane Perry and Victoria Lust after the latter knocked out fourth seed Habiba Mohamed 3-1 in a bruising encounter littered with lets and collisions.
In contrast, there were plenty of smiles as Perry overcame Nicolette Fernandes of Guyana in three close games.
NetSuite Open PSA W25, San Francisco, USA.
Quarter-finals:
[1] Amanda Sobhy (USA) bt [8] Tesni Evans (WAL) 3-0: 11-7, 11-1, 11-8 (26m)
[7] Line Hansen (DEN) bt Olivia Blatchford (USA) 3-0: 11-9,11-7,11-4 (30m)
[5] Victoria Lust (ENG) bt [4] Habiba Mohamed (EGY) 3-1: 9-11, 12-10, 15-13, 11-3 (41m)
[2] Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG) bt [6] Nicolette Fernandes (GUY) 3-0: 11-9,11-6,11-5
Semi-finals:
[1] Amanda Sobhy (USA) v [7] Line Hansen (DEN)
[5] Victoria Lust (ENG) v [2] Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG)
Pictures by STEVE LINE (www.squashpics.com) courtesy of NetSuite Open and PSA