U.S. Open Draws Released: Gohar and Elias Target Title Defense

The path to the 2023 U.S. Open Squash Championships titles presented by Truist is now clear with the release of the draws, October 7-14, at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center  in Philadelphia.

Draws and match times are now available on usopensquash.com/draws. Get your tickets today on usopensquash.com/tickets to watch the world’s best squash players vie for one of the sport’s most prestigious titles.

Defending champions Nouran Gohar and Diego Elias open their title defenses on opposite sides of the draw as the one and two seeds, respectively.

Gohar will aim to make U.S. Open history by becoming the first four-time women’s champion, but will need to make it through the top half of the draw that includes world No. 4 Joelle King and all four top-twenty-ranked American women: world No. 5 Amanda Sobhy, world No. 9 Olivia Fiechter, world No. 14 Olivia Blatchford Clyne and world No. 16 Sabrina Sobhy.

Seven-time world champion Nour El Sherbini will begin her pursuit for the only major title in the sport that still eludes her as the two seed, and a potential semifinal rematch against world No. 3 Hania El Hammamy.

Amanda Sobhy and Blatchford Clyne will put on an All-American showcase for the home fans Sunday evening–their first match up at the U.S. Open.

Fiechter, a Philadelphia native, awaits one of two talented young Egyptians in either Amina Orfi or Fayrouz Abouelkheir, and a potential third round match against four seed Joelle King.

Sabrina Sobhy will face a difficult second round test against on a top ten player for a second year in a row. Last year, Sobhy produced one of the biggest results of her career to defeat world No. 3 Hania El Hammamy, and the twenty-six-year-old will need to produce the same level of squash to beat Belgian world No. 7 Nele Gilis.

Elias, the only South American to win the trophy in the event’s history, is seeded to face four seed Paul Coll in the semfinals, and will open up his tournament against either Team USA’s Faraz Khan or Columbia graduate Ramit Tandon the second round.

After conceding the U.S. Open final due to injury last year, two-time U.S. Open, top seed and world No. 1 Farag will face a challenging opening match against a resurgent world No. 11 Karim Abdel Gawad. Three-time champion and world No. 3 Mohamed ElShorbagy will have the chance to become just the second four-time champion alongside Peter Nicol and joins Farag in the top half of the draw.

Ten Americans will be in action on opening day, Saturday, October 7.

Harvard senior Marina Stefanoni will hope to pull off an opening round U.S. Open upset for a second year in a row against Egypt’s Mariam Metwally. Fresh off winning his maiden U.S. national title, Andrew Douglas will look to continue his success at the Specter Center against Mexico’s Cesar Salazar.

World No. 37 Shahjahan Khan and world No. 48 Timmy Brownell could set up an all-American second round match against one another if they can progress against Switzerland’s Dimitri Steinmann and Egypt’s Karim El Hammamy in the first round, respectively.

Philadelphia native Todd Harrity will harness the home crowd support against England’s Adrian Waller.

Lucie Stefanoni and Spencer Lovejoy both return as U.S. Open wild cards, and will hope to record their first career U.S. Open victories over Egypt’s Hana Moataz and Aly Abou El Einen, respectively. After representing Team USA at the World Junior Championships this summer, Madison Ho and Zane Patel will both make their U.S. Open debuts against Canada’s Hollie Naughton and Scotland’s Greg Lobban, respectively.