6:29 am
16 Feb 2025

Perry Sinks Second Seed Hany To Gatecrash Carol Weymuller Semis

1 Feb 2025

Sarah-Jane Perry upset No.2 seed Salma Hany to reach the Carol Weymuller Open semi-finals, where Farida Mohamed and Fayrouz Aboelkheir will meet in a rematch of last year's final of the PSA Squash Tour Bronze event in New York.

All four matches on quarter-finals day in Brooklyn were taking place on the East Court at The Heights Casino, with Perry and Hany taking to the court in front of a packed crowd.

No.2 seed Hany is ranked eight places higher than Perry and had beaten the experienced English player in their last two encounters, but was coming into this event on the back of a lengthy injury layoff, having been out of action since the Qatar Classic in October.

The Egyptian looked comfortable in the opening stages, nonetheless, taking fewer than seven minutes to give herself a one-game lead.

But game two was a different story, as the players went toe-to-toe for close to 20 minutes, going deep into a tiebreak that would prove to be crucial.

Hany, 28, saved three game balls at 10-7 down and another two in the tiebreak, seeing two of her own come and go before eventually going down 16-14, with 34-year-old Perry showing quick hands at the front of the court to return a volley that was almost past her at 15-14 up.

There continued to be very little between the players throughout most of game three, but it was Perry who came out on top, 11-7, and she carried that momentum into game four.

From 2-1 down, Perry raced into a 10-3 lead - with Hany perhaps feeling the effects of her time away from the court - taking her first match ball to reach her first Bronze event semi-final since 2023.

"She's really dangerous when she's got any time, anywhere on the court," Perry said of her opponent after the match.

"I had to try and take time away from her but not rush myself. In that first game she just picked me off. I left some loose and she's not been top 10 in the world for no reason, she's very, very dangerous and she beat me the last two times.

"I know she's coming back from quite a nasty injury as well, so I just tried to sort of hang in there and stay strong. I know from my many injuries over the years that when you come back it's hard. It's quite hard to have confidence from recent events when you've not been playing matches."

Perry will now face fourth seed Nada Abbas, who beat Canada's Hollie Naughton in the last quarter-final, while the other semi-final will see top seed and last year's runner-up, Aboelkheir, take on defending champion Mohamed.

Aboelkheir put in an accomplished display to beat France's Melissa Alves 3/0, while Mohamed had to battle back from 2/1 down to win in five for the second day running.

She had gone the distance in her round-two win over Ka Yi Lee on the same court 24 hours earlier, and repeated the trick against fifth seed Rachel Arnold here, albeit in more dramatic circumstance.

Having lost game one 11-5, Mohamed then saved a game ball on her way to winning the second 12-10 before losing a tension-filled third-game tiebreak 17-15.

A comfortable 11-6 win in game four sent the match to a decider, where the Egyptian found herself 8-5 down, before turning things around by winning six points on the bounce to secure victory.