Ibrahim Stuns World Champion Elias To Reach Pittsburgh Open Final

A massive shock semi-final result in the 2025 Pittsburgh Open saw No.5 seed Youssef Ibrahim overcome World Champion and top seed Diego Elias, while No.2 seed Joel Makin took the second final spot after a straight games victory over No.3 seed Youssef Soliman.

The first match of the day saw Peruvian favourite Elias take on the 'Gunslinger' Ibrahim, a match-up in which the Egyptian had never before come out on top.

Elias looked strong in his early rounds, with straight game wins over Ramit Tandon and Sebastien Bonmalais, while Ibrahim has won both his matches in four games, against Moustafa Elsirty and No.4 seed Victor Crouin.

The match started with both players evenly-matched, although the Peruvian held a slim lead. Elias earned himself three game balls, but Ibrahim reacted well, finding his targets and scoring five successive points to claim the first game on his first opportunity after 19 minutes.

Ibrahim dominated the match from there on, taking a resounding 9-1 lead in the second game and a 9-3 advantage in the third game, converting both comfortably to claim a place in his second World-Event final.

Speaking after the match, Ibrahim said: I'm very happy, very very happy.

"The first game was very tough physically. The environment is incredibly hot here tonight. It was tough physically for both of us.

"I felt like the beginning of the second game was very important and the ball had softened up a little bit so I tried to use my attacking into the front a bit more often.

"I'm just gonna enjoy today and recover well. Today wasn't very tough physically, but yesterday we moved a lot on court so I'm just going to have to recover and eat some good food and sleep".

In the second semi-final of the day, Welshman Makin won out after a confident performance against Egypt's Soliman.

In typical Makin fashion, the rallies were long and tiring, but the Welshman was being rewarded with point after point as he claimed victory in three games after 56 minutes.