Three-time Champion Mohamed ElShorbagy rolled back the years with a thrilling 3-1 upset over world No. 4 Mohamed Zakaria to reach his fifteenth career quarterfinal at the U.S. Open Squash Championships powered by Comcast Business Monday, November 2, at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia.
ElShorbagy, who is sixteen years older than the nineteen-year-old phenom, put on a show for the Specter Center crowd, using his years of experience and skill to pull off an 11-9, 8-11, 11-6, 13-11 in seventy-two minutes.
ElShorbagy, who spent 50 months at World No. 1 between 2014 and 2021, will now take on 2022 U.S. Open champion Diego Elias after the Peruvian defeated Malaysia’s future Olympian Eain Yow Ng.
“I love playing here at the U.S. Open, every year apart from last year I made at least the quarters, so I feel it’s a good court for my game,” ElShorbagy said. “I’m really happy with the win, I haven’t had a win like that in a really long time, and I put a lot of work in, in the summer. He’s from Alexandria, from where I come from, and I’m really proud of him for what he has achieved. We all know he’s going to be World No.1 and he is going to win everything in the sport, but he is still only 19 and he has so much to learn. I’m really enjoying the sport and I’m not really trying to be World No.1 anymore. But I know on my day I can cause some problems. He’s just made World No.4 and it’s unbelievable at 19 to do that. I’m happy with the way I attacked him on court, it was brutal physically.”
In the women’s draw, 2023 champion Nour ElSherbini came back from 2-1 down to defeat Team USA’s Amanda Sobhy, winning 11-2, 7-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-5.
ElSherbini has had a slow start to the season with last 16 exits at both the Qatar Classic and Silicon Valley Open and had to use her years of title winning experience to overturn the deficit against Sobhy in a gripping contest.
“I try not to think a lot and just tried to focus on what I should do in every point,” ElSherbini said afterwards. “I’ve definitely not had the best start to the season and I know I had a few bad losses. I believe I wasn’t very ready for the challenge of these matches, but I’ve been getting back step by step. I feel that every tournament I’m playing a bit better and I’m building up.”
El Sherbini will play England’s Georgina Kennedy for a place in the semi-finals after she defeated Nada Abbas, while World No.1 Amina Orfi and World No.4 Sivasangari Subramaniam will also face off after wins today.