World No.1s Nour El Sherbini and Ali Farag will face current World Champions, Nouran Gohar and Diego Elias, in the respective finals of the Comcast Business U.S. Open Championships 2024 after the quartet all claimed victory on semi-finals night of the PSA Squash Tour Platinum event.
On a high-quality night of action in Philadelphia, El Sherbini and Gohar overcame U.S. No.1 Olivia Weaver and World No.3 Hania El Hammamy in two hard-fought battles, while Farag and Elias sealed three-game victories over Egyptian duo Mazen Hesham and Aly Abou Eleinen.
The evening’s play started in dramatic fashion at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia, with El Sherbini holding off an inspired performance from World No.4 Weaver to eventually progress in five games.
El Sherbini, who arrived into the match with a perfect 10-0 head-to-head record against Weaver, was tested all the way through the 56-minute encounter, surviving a number of big swings in momentum to advance by an 11-3, 7-11, 11-6, 2-11, 11-4 scoreline.
In the end, it was El Sherbini who saved her best squash for the pivotal moment of the match, surging into a quick-fire lead in the fifth game and booking her spot in the sixth U.S. Open final of her career.
After the match, El Sherbini said: “I feel the crowds [supporting Olivia] are a good thing, to be honest. I never take it as a negative thing. I try to say [in my head] that they are supporting me and not her.
“I think it [my lapses in concentration] is something that I still need to work on, to be honest. I’m not always like this in tournaments, but this week I am. That is definitely something I can work on.”
Meanwhile, Gohar stretched her winning run over long-term rival El Hammamy to five matches following an 11-3, 6-11, 11-7, 11-9 victory.
In what was the pair’s 26th meeting on the PSA Tour, it was Gohar who triumphed over the No.3 seed with a gutsy display which saw her juggle the challenges of her recently broken nose – with the 27-year-old choosing to remove the strapping that guarded it at the end of the second game.
Gohar advanced after 56 minutes of all-action play to set up an eighth straight major final meeting with El Sherbini on the PSA Squash Tour.
An absolute lung-buster 🥵 🥵@diegoelias96 & @AEleinen treating the Philly crowd to some gruelling squash here in the first game of their semi-final 🍿#USOpenSquash pic.twitter.com/wllALZ43C7
— PSA Squash Tour (@PSASquashTour) October 26, 2024
In the men’s draw, top seed Farag delivered a masterful performance to negate the dangerous attacking play of World No.5 Mazen Hesham and progress in straight games.
Farag, a two-time champion at the U.S. Open, ultimately proved too strong for Hesham after a gruelling opening game, testing the physical capabilities of ‘The Black Falcon’ to the extreme throughout the 38-minute encounter.
After coming from 6-2 down to take the opener and holding off a quick-fire comeback from Hesham in the second game, Farag moved through to take a dominant win by an 11-7, 11-9, 11-1 scoreline.
“You’re going to have to accept that you’re going to be outplayed by Mazen for certain patches of the match,” Farag said after the match. “You’ve got to remember that it’s a marathon. I knew that if I kept my stamina and my mental resilience for long periods of the match, I would stand a good chance of winning today.
“I had to pick my punches. I didn’t want to be passive but at the same time I had to be very careful of when I went short. It’s a weird mix of not being passive but also stretching the rallies out.”
World No.4 Diego Elias was the last winner on semi-finals night, continuing his faultless progression through the men’s draw by ending the superb run of World No.13 Aly Abou Eleinen in three games.
Unseeded Eleinen – a University of Pennsylvania alumni – had enjoyed a memorable week in a city he calls a second home, defeating former World Champion Tarek Momen and World No.2 Mostafa Asal on his way to the last four, but Elias ultimately proved a step too far, with the World No.4 taking his spot in the final following an 11-7, 12-10, 11-9 win.