The second day of Comcast Business U.S. Open action saw two second round upsets from Curtis Malik and Sana Ibrahim, while home favorite Olivia Weaver escaped a close five-game encounter with the world No. 11 Monday, October 20, at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia.
Malik, world No. 27, will make his debut in a PSA Platinum quarterfinal at the U.S. Open after a second five-game win in as many days. The twenty-six-year-old followed up his first round upset over compatriot Mohamed ElShorbagy with a another hard-fought win over Switzerland’s Dimitri Steinmann.
Team USA’s Olivia Weaver endured a difficult second round match up against Egypt’s world No. 11 Fayrouz Abouelkheir, who entered the U.S. Open fresh off winning the $75k Open Squash Classic in New York City last week. It was the nineteen-year-old Egyptian who started on the front foot, winning the first game. Weaver regained control in the second and third and held a slender lead in the fourth up 7-6, but the Egyptian fought back to force a fifth game. Down 2-0 in the fifth, Weaver was lifted by the home crowd and powered to a 7-3 lead before clinching a quarterfinal berth 11-6 after fifty-six minutes.
“I’m very relieved to get through that,” Weaver said. “Fayrouz is obviously such a dangerous opponent. She’s playing really well. She’s always tough to play and I knew there was going to be an amazing crowd of support tonight and I probably put higher expectations of myself because of that. The home crowd helped me really get the best out of myself in that fifth and just up the tempo, up the energy. It’s a late shift tonight and having that energy in the crowd behind you in a match like that can really make the difference. I just love playing in front of this crowd, love playing in this venue and I didn’t want my tournament to end here. So I’m really happy I was able to dig deep and find a way.”
Weaver will face first-time U.S. Open quaterfinalist Sana Ibrahim after the twenty-two-year-old recorded the day’s only upset over a top eight seed in Malaysia’s Sivasangari Subramaniam.
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