5:16 am
16 Feb 2025

Watanabe & Sobhy Set Up Shock Squash in the Land Showdown

19 Jan 2025

Satomi Watanabe upset Amina Orfi in an epic five-game encounter on semi-finals day at Squash in the Land in Cleveland to set up a final showdown with home favourite Amanda Sobhy. After the exits of the top two seeds in the other event, Marwan Elshorbagy and Tarek Momen will also contest a surprise men's final in the PSA Squash Tour Silver event.

Orfi came into her contest with Watanabe riding a 10-match winning streak having won her two most recent events, but she did suffer defeat to Watanabe in their only previous Tour meeting.

That came at this season's Silicon Valley Open and was undoubtedly one of the matches of the season so far, with the Japanese star winning a deciding fifth game 11-9 after 81 minutes of action.

The crowd inside the Playhouse Square Outcalt Theatre would have been hoping for something similar this time around and the opening game suggested they might be in luck.

Watanabe raced into a 10-5 lead, headlined by a brilliant backhand boast winner off a ball that appeared glued to the wall, before Orfi won the next three points, but Watanabe got a game on the board at the fourth time of asking, hitting a tight backhand of her own that Orfi could not return.

Clean, crisp hitting from both players had underpinned the opening game and there was no change in the second, but there was a change in the outcome as Orfi herself got back on level terms, finding her weight of shot into the back corners, stretching Watanabe out.

The pace remained high throughout game three, with neither player lifting the ball often but it was Orfi who came out on top.

She was made to work hard for her success, though, with Watanabe saving five game balls before eventually falling 15-13, trying one too many ambitious drop shot winners in the tiebreak.

There was a moment of humour in the opening rallies of game four as Watanabe fell over hitting a cross-court forehand, not seeing that the ball looped deep in the court and ended up being a winner.

Referee Jason Foster drew chuckles from the crowd as he gave her the good news but that was just the start of good results for Watanabe in game four, as she dominated proceedings to send the contest into a decider, as the match duration approached the hour mark.

Both players were welcomed back onto court for game five by a warm round of applause from the Cleveland crowd, who were in for a treat...

After going toe-to-toe to 8-8, the players embraced in a tense few rallies littered with stoppages and video reviews, increasing the tension levels through the roof.

Ultimately, it was the Japanese star who was celebrating at the end - albeit only after more drama as Orfi reviewed the final rally - jumping up and down in joy after sealing her spot in the final.

"It definitely felt harder today, to play against her," Watanabe said, comparing her win to her October success against Orfi.

"She was bringing in more different tactics. She was using more front corners, she was using all four corners to make me stretch for the balls and I made a couple of errors where I didn't have to, but then because I was so under pressure, I wanted those points.

"But I'm really pleased with how I controlled, not the shot, but myself, trying to stay calm, knowing where to put the ball instead of trying to think 'Oh I need this point, I need this point', so yeah, I'm really pleased."

Watanabe will play home favourite Amanda Sobhy, who knocked out No.2 seed Rowan Elaraby in a five-game duel of her own later in the day.

The American had looked in imperious form in her dominant quarter-final win over Nada Abbas yesterday, but found a much tougher challenge standing in her way in the semi-finals.

In fact, Elaraby will likely feel as though this was an opportunity missed having led 2/1 and 5-1 in the fourth before Sobhy staged an impressive fight back to win in five.

"I wanted this week, to go out there and compete," said Sobhy, currently ranked 30 in the world, after her win.

"I've been working really hard with my team on the rehab side, to essentially get myself to a place where now I can just go out there and battle it out and not really worry about... is my body going to hold up.

"Thankfully I have an amazing team around me and I trust the work that we do and I can trust my body to kind of go full force and to move around the court.

"I'm really just thankful to compete in a battle today against Rowan and get a top 10 win and be in the finals.

"I definitely think it was a bit more physical than we are in practice but that's how it is in a match.

"There's so much more on the line and and neither of us are taking it personally. We're both trying to fight for the middle of the court and off court we're friends.

"Obviously someone's going to have to lose and someone's going to be disappointed to lose, but at the end of the day we're going to go on and be friends, train down in Florida and probably play each other again."

In the men's draw, Momen and the younger Elshorbagy brother will compete for the title after respective wins over Mohamed Elshorbagy and Karim Abdel Gawad.

Both matches followed relatively similar patterns with Momen and Marwan ElShorbagy both losing the opening game, but both turning things around from there to win in four.

Marwan, in particular, made a dramatic change in approach after game one, playing at a much higher pace and dominating the T, controlling much of the next three games to reach tomorrow's final.

His win over Gawad in the final match of semi-finals day also confirmed that none of the top two seeds in either draw would be competing for the trophies.