Rachel Arnold (Mas) 3-0 [3] Farida Mohamed (Egy) 11-5, 11-8, 11-8 (28m)
[1] Mohamed Elshorbagy (Eng) 3-1 Mohamed Abouelghar (Egy) 11-6, 12-14, 11-7, 11-9 (58m)
England’s Mohamed ElShorbagy won his 50th PSA Squash Tour title and Malaysia’s Rachel Arnold won the biggest title of his career after victories over Egyptian duo Mohamed Abouelghar and Farida Mohamed in the China Open 2024.
Day FOUR : Finalists decided in Shanghai
Egyptian duo Farida Mohamed and Mohamed Abouelghar upset the odds at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center as Mohamed staged a comeback to beat Malaysia’s Sivasangari Subramaniam and unseeded Abouelghar took down Malaysian third seed Eain Yow Ng in the semi-finals.
Mohamed trailed by two games and 10-2 in the third, but somehow found the means to triumph in five games.
They will face Malaysia’s Rachel Arnold and England’s Mohamed ElShorbagy in the finals of the Silver-level event after Arnold overcame compatriot Aira Azman to reach the biggest final of her career and ElShorbagy beat Iker Pajares to move within touching distance of a 50th PSA title.
Day THREE : Upsets aplenty in the quarter-finals
Malaysian duo Rachel Arnold and Aira Azman put in career-best performances as they reached the semi-finals of a Silver-level event for the first time with come-from-behind wins over top seed Rowan Elaraby and fourth seed Sana Ibrahim.
There were more shocks in the men’s draw, too, as unseeded Egyptian Mohamed Abouelghar took down English second seed Marwan ElShorbagy and Spanish seventh seed Iker Pajares got his revenge against Egyptian fourth seed Fares Dessouky.
Day TWO : Lau and Zakaria take out Swiss seeds
Hong Kong’s Alex Lau and Egyptian teen star Mohamad Zakaria recorded a pair of shock wins in Shanghai as they sent Swiss #5 & #6 seeds Nicolas Mueller and Dimitri Steinmann crashing out to reach the quarter-finals of a Silver-level event for the first time in their careers.
Having already performed heroics in coming from behind to beat Japan’s Ryunosuke Tsukue in the first round at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center, World No.44 Lau had to dig deep again today at the Royal Marshall Club against former World No.13 Mueller.
“Today’s a big result, of course I feel amazing! This was my third time playing him and I’d never beaten him before. I really played my best and used everything I have to win this,” Lau said.
Zakaria, meanwhile, continued his seemingly unstoppable ascent to the top of the game with another strong performance against a higher-ranked player.
“Today was a very important match and I was so ready for it!” Zakaria said. “I watched him several times and I executed my game plan very well. I’m so proud of myself today and super pumped for tomorrow’s match to hopefully make my first Silver semi final.”
Lau now meets top seed Mohamed ElShorbagy while Zakaria faces Malaysian third seed Eain Yow Ng, who won the world junior championships seven years before Zakaria’s triumph this summer.
Eight seed seed Curtis Malik also exited early as he lost out to former World No.7 Mohamed Abouelghar.
In the women’s draw all matches went to seeding, though Malaysian eighth seed Aira Azman had to survive a Halloween scare as she recovered from a game down to beat Egypt’s Salma Eltayeb. Azman will go up against another Egyptian in the last eight, fourth seed Sana Ibrahim, who beat Hong Kong’s Lee Ka Yi Lee in straight games.
The quarter-finals of the China Open takes place on Friday from 14:00 (time is local, GMT+8). Play will continue at the Royal Marshall Club, with a return to the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center for the semi-finals as the impact of Typhoon Kong-rey abates.
Day ONE : a good day for the seeds in Shanghai, with just three seeding upsets as Joelle King, Jonah Bryant and Simon Herbert join the remaining 9/16 seeds through to face the top eight in Round Two.
Men & Women PSA $75k Silver, 30 Oct – 03 Nov, Shanghai
The tournament takes place at Shanghai Oriental Sports Center, with four Glass Courts in use.
