Unseeded ElShorbagy Shocks Coll To Make Egyptian Open Semis

Unseeded Englishman Marwan ElShorbagy overcame the odds and a mid-match court change on a chaotic night in Cairo as the world No.10 shocked world No.2 Paul Coll of New Zealand to reach the semi-finals of the CIB Egyptian Open.

ElShorbagy was one of two unseeded players through to the last four of the first ever Diamond-level event on the PSA Squash Tour, with Nada Abbas also progressing at the expense of Egyptian compatriot Sana Ibrahim to reach the semi-finals of a major women's championship for the first time.

ElShorbagy and Coll's match began on the spectacular all-glass court at Club O West, and from the opening game the former world No.3 looked sharp and hungry, going on the attack after a watchful opening period to take the lead with a 12-10 win.

After Coll struck back 11-8 in game two to level, play was interrupted early in game three by an issue with the floor of the court, necessitating a return to Club O West's traditional court.

It was the Englishman - who impressed in a win over Victor Crouin on the traditional courts earlier in the competition - that better dealt with the disruption, as he regained the lead with an 11-9 win before securing his first victory over Coll since 2021 with an 11-8 in game four.

On the change of courts, ElShorbagy said: "It is what it is; when we play in Egypt they always keep us on our toes! There is always something happening!"

On his performance, he added: "I've trained really hard in the summer.

"To be honest, when I was playing with Paul, I thought the pace of my training during the summer was higher than his so I was able to play at that level."

ElShorbagy will face Mostafa Asal in the semi-final, with the Egyptian No.3 seed playing a frenetic and bad-tempered affair with Marwan's older brother, Mohamed ElShorbagy, that was cut short by an injury retirement from ElShorbagy senior in the second game.

Afterwards, Asal said: "It's an absolute shame it's going that way at the moment. I didn't like it at all and I don't want to win like this."

In the women's draw, world No.17 Abbas was able to stay calm as she stifled a valiant comeback attempt from Ibrahim.

Abbas went into the match the favourite against the world No.32 and early proceedings appeared to be following the rankings, with Ibrahim competitive but unable to consistently hurt her opponent as Abbas took game one 11-9.

Abbas doubled her lead with an 11-4 win in game two and looked to have one foot in the semi-final when she took a 6-2 lead in game three, only for Ibrahim to rally, digging in to take eight of the next nine points before converting her third game ball at 10-9 to gain an unlikely foothold in the match.

Abbas, no doubt remembering her own comeback from 0/2 and 8-9 down against Sivasangari Subramaniam in the third round, returned to court a composed figure for game four, resuming her best squash to finish things 11-4.

Afterwards, Abbas said: "The past two years have been nightmare for me. I've been struggling from so many things because of squash. I've been struggling from depression and anxiety and insomnia because of squash, so it's a really nice reward to feel that everything is paying off and I'm actually winning and reaching very far in big tournaments."

Abbas' opponent in the semi-finals will be reigning world champion Nouran Gohar, who defeated Egyptian compatriot Rowan Elaraby in straight games.

Completing the semi-finals draw are yesterday's victorious quarter-finalists, with Nour El Sherbini taking on Hania El Hammamy in the other women's semi-final, and Ali Farag facing Diego Elias in the men's semi-final in the top half of the draw.