The opening day of the 2025 Comcast Business U.S. Open Squash Championships produced two first round thrillers in the women’s draw as Team USA’s Marina Stefanoni and Egyptian phenom Amina Orfi both pulled off five-game comebacks Sunday, October 19, at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia.
Sunday saw all thirty-two players in the PSA Platinum draws in first round action with all but one top eight seed advancing. Stefanoni and Orfi produced two of the standout results of the day to the thrill of the Specter Center crowd following the annual U.S. Open House.
Earlier this month, Orfi made history by becoming the youngest player ever to reach No. 3 in the rankings at just eighteen years old. The tournament’s four seed found herself 2-1 down against Belgium’s Nele Gilis, who was ranked as high as world No. 4 two years ago. Orfi clawed back to keep her hopes of a first U.S. Open title alive 9-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-2, 11-4 in eighty-seven minutes.
Stefanoni entered the U.S. Open with a career high ranking of world No. 24 and found herself up against world No. 23 Georgia Adderley in the first round. It was the Scot who stormed to an early lead and one foot in the second round. Stefanoni was able to regroup and adjust her tactics to record her third career U.S. Open victory 8-11, 5-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-8 in sixty-five minutes. The twenty-three-year-old American will face eight-time world champion Nour El Sherbini Tuesday night.
“I feel great, I was down 2-0 pretty quick and it was sort of one of those moments where you don’t really know what’s happening and was disappointed that it was going that way,” Stefanoni said. “I told my crew before the match that I would need a lot of home support. I haven’t been feeling great in the past few days so I just needed something extra from off the court and they did great and supported me really loudly and I had almost all the important people in my life there and I probably couldn’t have done it without them. I was a bit lackadaisical in the first two and Georgia did well to get me to play her pace sort of just lulling it in the back and she was getting more opportunities than I was because I wasn’t injecting any pace. I think once I upped the ante a bit and started stepping forward and taking the ball in a bit more and I was rewarded for that and that’s when she was struggling more from the third onwards.”
Stefanoni joins U.S. teammates Olivia Weaver, Amanda Sobhy and Sabrina Sobhy in the second round. The Sobhy sisters will face off against one another Tuesday night after contrasting first rounds. Amanda defeated France’s Melissa Alves in three games while Sabrina needed five games to overcome Hong Kong’s Ka Yi Lee.
The men’s draw saw two changing of the guard moments with young Englishmen Curtis Malik and Jonah Bryant dispatching Egyptian veterans Mohamed ElShorbagy and Mazen Hesham, respectively, in their first career U.S. Open victories.
Bryant, who has broken into the world’s top twenty for the first time this season as just twenty-years old, defeated 2024 U.S. Open semifinalist Hesham in three games.
Malik toppled three-time U.S. Open champion, five seed and compatriot Mohamed Elshorbagy in a five-game battle to reach his first U.S. Open second round.
“I’m massively pleased and proud of myself,” ElShorbagy said. “I know that Mo hasn’t been in his best form over the last couple of events that he has been in previously. But for me to play him, I grew up watching him, and to even be on the court with him when growing up was a dream come true. So, to beat him is amazing. The respect I have for Mo is unmatched. He’s been so helpful to me over the last few years with England. So much advice that I wouldn’t have learned or known if it weren’t for him. Just being around him, having conversations with him, I can’t thank him enough for what he has done.”
Team USA’s Timmy Brownell recorded his second career U.S. Open first round win against U.S. Junior Champion and wild card Alex Dartnell. Brownell will take on Egypt’s world No. 1 Mostafa Asal in the second round Monday night.
Monday will see the first half of the second round play out from 5pm ET.