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.