Malaysia’s Sivasangari Subramaniam earned her first title of the 2024/25 PSA Squash Tour season after defeating No.2 seed Amanda Sobhy in a five-game thriller at the 2025 Cincinnati Gaynor Cup.
The Malaysian came into the match having taken out top seed and defending champion Olivia Weaver in the semi-finals, while US No.2 Sobhy claimed victory over England’s Jasmine Hutton.
She had gone close to winning titles on the Asian swing this season, but this proved the first time she had held aloft a trophy since triumphing in London last season.
Sivasangari was the more aggressive of the two players as the match began, forcing the American onto her backhand and stopping Sobhy from having control of the tempo of the rallies, which was rewarded with an 11-7 win.
The US No.2 came onto the court for the second game with a point to prove, making less errors and forcing her opponent around the court, ultimately storming to an 8-1 lead. The No.3 seed rallied, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Sobhy’s early advantage as she claimed the game 11-6.
In a closely-contested third game, Sobhy held a narrow lead from 6-6 to take the lead for the first time in the match. Sivasangari regrouped in the fourth game, taking the game to the American in a similar manner than in the first game and forcing the match to a fifth game, the first in a Gaynor Cup final since 2017.
From 4-4 in game five, Sivasangari took control, scoring seven successive point to claim her first Silver-level title.
Speaking after the match, Sivasangari said: “I feel great. It’s a first title for this year and then my last title was London [Classic] and now to be winning this is a great feeling.
“I think I had a tough couple of months. Being 2-0 up an losing matches, losing close matches and I think that was all the learning process that I had to go through to win today. It came from the experience that I had over the last couple of months.
“Yesterday [beating top seed Olivia Weaver in the semi-finals] was a big win for me. I’d never beaten Olivia and that was my first win. I kind of put that aside. Yesterday I told myself that the job’s still not done, I still have one more match. I don’t put any pressure on myself, I know Amanda [Sobhy] is a good player… …I just tried to play point-by-point, focus on what I need to out there and that outcome will come with it and it’s great that it went my way.”