Sabrina Sobhy Overwhelms El Hammamy In Paris Shock
31 Aug 2023
US No.4 Sabrina Sobhy stunned world No.3 Hania El Hammamy for the second time in her career to gatecrash the quarter-finals of Paris Squash 2023, the PSA World Tour Platinum event at the Palais de Tokyo.
The world No.16 shocked El Hammamy at last season's US Open to reach the last eight, and the American delivered again for another surprise quarter-final berth.
26-year-old Sobhy came flying out of the traps in the first two games, taking them both 11-6 as third seed El Hammamy struggled to get going and get in front of her opponent.
The third game sparked El Hammamy into life, getting within a point of Sobhy who was repelling everything the Egyptian threw at her. El Hammamy saved two of Sobhy's match balls, but the American increased her head-to-head tally over the Egyptian to move into the event's last eight.
"I feel like I was composed and that helped me a lot," said Sobhy. "It's the first tournament back and there can be a lot of expectations, but I turned it around so that there were no expectations and I think that helped a lot
"I had a similar game plan at the US Open - I just tried to use the height of the front wall as much as I could. I don't think I could hang with her pace nor would I like to. So that was my game plan."
Meanwhile in the men's draw, England's No.3 seed Mohamed ElShorbagy was forced to fight back from two games down to prevail against Miguel Rodriguez in a pulsating clash.