World No. 1’s Nour El Sherbini and Ali Farag will take on reigning world champions Nouran Gohar and Diego Elias in the 2024 Comcast Business U.S. Open Squash Championships finals after progressing through the semifinals Friday, October 25, at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadephia.

All four finalists will be adding to their U.S. Open title legacies with Gohar having won three titles, Farag two titles, and El Sherbini and Elias one title.

The first semifinal saw Team USA’s Olivia Weaver exit the tournament at the hands of El Sherbini–her second loss against the Egyptian this season. The American acquitted herself well against the world No. 1, however, pushing El Sherbini to five games and earning a standing ovation from the home crowd as a result of her efforts.

Penn graduate Aly Abou Eleinen recorded the biggest result of his career thus far in the Comcast Business U.S. Open Squash Championships quarterfinals, upsetting world No. 2 and 2021 champion Mostafa Asal to reach his first PSA Platinum semifinal Thursday, October 24, at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia.

Twenty-four-year-old Eleinen has been in the best form of his career in recent weeks, which has now culminated in his first career win over the mercurial Asal or a world No. 2-ranked player.

Eleinen started the match in confidently, moving impeccably on the H. Chase Lenfest all-glass court and winning the length battle down both side walls on his way to a one-game lead. Despite Asal stealing the momentum of the match after claiming a tense second-game tie-break, Eleinen regained his composure to shoot his way back from 4-7 down in the third and earn a 2-1 advantage. Towards the end of a close fourth game, Eleinen rattled off three straight winners from 8-9 down to seal the momentous result.

“I’m super proud of myself,” Eleinen said after the match. “I had an opportunity in the fourth and I took it. I’m just overwhelmed with joy right now. I’ve been working so hard this season. I’ve been on the other side of these results so many times against these top guys. Today, it was actually really tough when I was ahead – I didn’t want to start doubting myself. Last season, when I had those opportunities, I didn’t really go for them, and I told myself this season that I would back myself up and go for it. I’ve just got to recover now and keep it going in the semifinals.”

Eleinen will face reigning world champion Diego Elias in the semifinals after the Peruvian eliminated three-time champion and eight seed Mohamed ElShorbagy in straight games.

The second women’s semifinal tomorrow night will feature a rematch of the 2021 finals between world No. 2 Nouran Gohar and world No. 3 Hania El Hammamy.

Current World Champion Gohar, who is wearing a protective strap after breaking her nose at the Qatar Classic two weeks ago, stretched her winning run over World No. 5 Nele Coll to 12 matches following a dominant three-game victory.

The three-time U.S. Open champion had only ever dropped one game against the Belgian  coming into the encounter, and she looked in control of the match from the first point to the last, securing an 11-4, 11-5, 11-5 victory after just thirty-two minutes on court.

“I tried to play with the big mask on, but it was really hard to do that, so this was the best thing we could come up with,” Gohar said of the smaller protective gear after wearing a full face mask in Qatar. “Playing without it would be ideal, but I can’t do that. It’s all about adapting to certain situations, things happen, so it’s all about finding ways to work around them.”

Friday night will feature four semifinals with match play starting at 6pm ET. Limited tickets are available on usopensquash.com/tickets. Watch live coverage on squash.tv.

Team USA’s Olivia Weaver became the first American to reach three Comcast Business U.S. Open semifinals in the PSA Platinum era, while Egypt’s Mazen Hesham took out defending champion Paul Coll in a thrilling five-game encounter Wednesday, October 24, at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia.

Wednesday night’s session saw the first half of the U.S. Open quarterfinals play out on the Specter Center’s H. Chase Lenfest West Glass Court.

The evening opened with the most significant result of the tournament thus far as Egypt’s world No. 5 Mazen Hesham reached his first career U.S. Open semifinal at the expense of New Zealand’s defending champion. Hesham used his world-class shot-making to fire his way back from 2-1 down and win the match 5-11, 11-9, 2-11, 11-5, 11-4 in sixty-four minutes.

“Paul was doing really well in the first two games, I didn’t do much wrong; I just had to tell myself that I needed to get him away from the ‘T’ and just try to push him a little bit into the back corners,” Hesham said. “I had to hang in there in the second and just try to get more rallies in. As soon as I got like four or five points, I thought I was in it again and just tried to push him and test him mentally. I think I did that really well for the rest of the match.”

Hesham will face world No. 1 and two-time U.S. Open champion Ali Farag in Friday’s semifinals after Farag held off a staunch challenge from first-time quarterfinalist Youssef Ibrahim.

The final match of the evening produced a historic result for Weaver, who marked her third U.S. Open semifinal appearance in the last four years–a first for an American since the U.S. Open has been held at the PSA Platinum level.

Weaver, world No. 4, fell behind in the match as Egypt’s Abouelkheir took the opening game 11-8, but the Philadelphia-native responded well to edge a crucial second game 11-9 and carry the momentum for the rest of the match 11-6, 11-5. 

Egypt’s Youssef Ibrahim and Fayrouz Abouelkheir knocked out both six seeds during opening day of the 2024 Comcast Business U.S. Open Championships, while Team USA’s Olivia Weaver made a confident start to her tournament Saturday, October 19, at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia.

Both Ibrahim and Abouelkheir came back from 2-1 down against top-ten-ranked opponents in Karim Abdel Gawad and Georgina Kennedy.

Ibrahim, world No. 17, recorded just his second career victory over the in-form Gawad, a former world champion. Ibrahim came through the heated match on the Specter Center side courts to reach his second consecutive U.S. Open round of sixteen 8-11, 10-12, 11-9, 12-10, 12-10 in over eighty minutes.

Abouelkheir, world No. 13, saved a match ball in the fourth game against England’s Georgina Kennedy to win her second match against the world No. 6 in as many months. The eighteen-year-old Egyptian recorded her first career U.S. Open victory 11-7, 4-11, 9-11, 14-12, 11-5 in an hour.

“I’m really happy to be through today,” Abouelkheir said. “Gina is such a hard player to come up against; she’s so quick around the court and had match balls in the fourth game. I just think about it [being match ball down] in a very easy way. You’re already losing, so you have nothing else to lose. You can just go for your shots a lot more in those moments.”

Three days after winning the biggest title of her career at the Silicon Valley Open, Weaver continued her momentum with a decisive 11-3, 11-4, 11-4 win over Egypt’s Nour Abouelmakarim. Weaver, the four seed, will face England’s Katie Malliff in the round of sixteen on Monday after Malliff upset compatriot Lucy Turmel.

Men’s Wild Cards Spencer Lovejoy and Salim Khan both fell short of reaching the second round. Lovejoy pushed England’s Patrick Rooney in a close four-game match, while Khan lost out against Egypt’s Mazen Hesham.

The second half of the first round will play out during Sunday afternoon’s session. Americans Amanda Sobhy, Timmy Brownell, and Marina and Lucie Stefanoni will aim for home court success.

Tickets are available on usopensquash.com/tickets. Watch live coverage on squash.tv.