Zakaria Upsets Bonmalais to Reach Maiden Gold Quarter-Final At Singapore Open

Egyptian teenager Mohamed Zakaria has reached the quarter-finals of a PSA Gold event for the first time in his career after the 17-year-old upset No.8 seed Sebastien Bonmalais in a terrific performance on day three of the Vitagen Singapore Open.

Zakaria - who won his first World Events title at the Nash Cup in September - is appearing in his maiden Gold-level tournament this week and followed up an opening day win against wildcard Samuel Kang with an 11-9, 11-9, 11-6 triumph over Bonmalais at the OCBC Arena.

The reigning men's World Junior Champion will play current PSA World Champion Diego Elias for a place in the last four.

"It's a great win for me, I'm a calculated guy, so I knew how important this win was for me," said Zakaria.

"I came very prepared and I watched him multiple times to be sure of what I was going to see, I didn't want to be surprised. I read the game very well, but I took time to adapt to the court. My length wasn't top at the beginning and the ball was very short, towards the end it started to get better and I had some good lines on the backhand too.

"I put a lot of blood, sweat and effort on court and I truly deserve to be here. I've made it to the quarters of every event apart from the Platinums now."

The women's World Junior Champion Amina Orfi also booked her spot in the last eight after defeating Scotland's Georgia Adderley in straight games.

The 3/0 scoreline belied the nature of the match, with all three games seeing Orfi win by narrow margins. The 17-year-old won 11-9, 13-11, 11-8 in 51 minutes to earn her place in the last eight and continue her recent fine form after winning the ACE Malaysia Cup last week.

The world No.10 will take on Belgian No.2 seed Nele Coll for a place in the last four.

"Anything can happen and this is my first time playing here on this court," said Orfi.

"It took a little bit to get used to, but hopefully I'm going to ready for tomorrow.

"Since I was young I used to play solo a lot when I didn't have training with my coaches, so it [relentless hitting] has become habit and part of my training now."

Women's No.2 seed Nele Coll has also reached the last eight after Canada's Hollie Naughton retired injured from their match due to an ankle injury, while her husband Paul Coll also advanced after coming back from a game down to beat Colombia's Juan Camilo Vargas.