Steinmann Stops Eleinen To Advance To Worlds L16

Switzerland's Dimitri Steinmann came back from match ball down to cause a big upset against Egypt's world No.13 Aly Abou Eleinen as round two kicked off at the CIB PSA World Championships at the Palm Hills Club in Cairo, Egypt.

It was a highly-entertaining match - which took place on the 'traditional' plaster courts on the Palm Hills complex - characterised by free-flowing, tough rallies and Eleinen was cheered on by a partisan crowd as he came back from 2/1 down to draw level.

The Egyptian battled hard to save two match balls and even held a match ball opportunity of his own, but a tenacious Steinmann fought through leg cramps to earn his spot in the third round of the World Championships for the first time. Steinmann will now play 2016 World Champion Karim Abdel Gawad for a place in the last eight.

"It was a huge result, my best result so far on the PSA World Tour," Steinmann said afterwards.

"Aly is a very solid and fit player, so I knew it was going to be tough. There was literally nothing that separated us today besides maybe a bit of luck on my side. I'm very happy to get over the line today.

"I enjoy it [the crowd cheering on Eleinen]. It doesn't matter who they cheer for, it's loud, it's noisy and I like that, it doesn't matter whether it's for or against me. It creates an atmosphere and it got the absolute best out of me today."

In the women's event, reigning World Champion Nour El Sherbini made it back-to-back wins in under 20 minutes after she continued her ruthless start to this year's PSA World Championships with a 30 dismantling of fellow Egyptian Menna Hamed on the all-glass court.

El Sherbini - who is aiming to equal the legendary Nicol David's record of eight World Championship titles this week - required just 19 minutes to beat Australia's Jessica Turnbull on day one, and only needed the same timeframe to dispose of Hamed following a dominant performance. World Junior Champion Amina Orfi awaits the seven-time PSA World Champion.

"You try not to stay too long on court, it's a long week and I know she's young but I don't think we've played in a PSA match before," said El Sherbini afterwards.

"You can never expect what's going to happen, but I'm definitely happy with the way I played. The conditions were really tough today, so I don't want to take anything from today and hopefully it's not going to be the same at the next venue. The ball was stopping short, so I tried to focus on my length and tried to put it back into the corners.

"Everyone has seen how good Amina is and how quickly she's climbing the rankings, she's been testing the top players. To be honest, I've been waiting for this match since the beginning of the season and I just want to play this match. I think I'm ready for it and I'm going to focus and have a good plan."