Mohamad Zakaria Makes History At El Gouna

On an exciting third day of action at the El Gouna International Open in Egypt, 17-year-old Mohamad Zakaria became the youngest male player in the modern era to reach a PSA Squash Tour Platinum quarter final.

The Egyptian World Junior Champion downed No.6 seed Tarek Momen in round one before beating India's Ramit Tandon in straight games at the El Gouna Squash Complex to book his spot in the last eight. The win will also take Zakaria into the world top 20, becoming the second youngest player ever to reach that milestone in the men's game.

The Egyptian kept the pace high and forced Tandon into many tough movements in the opening two games, tidying up loose balls from the Indian to win games one and two both 11-7.

Despite a brief break at the start of the third game due to a power cut, Zakaria motored on in his pursuit of a last eight spot. Tandon had no answers to the Zakaria barrage as he took the game 11-3 to set up a meeting with world No.4 Paul Coll.

"It feels amazing. To do it here in El Gouna is extra special because this was the first major event that I ever played. I got the wildcard when I was 15 so to make the quarters here is very nice," said Zakaria.

"I think this win takes me into the top 20 for the first time and that's huge for me. You know, when you have something in your mind all season and then you get closer and closer, it just gives you so much confidence and such a boost and I want more of that.

"Ramit has such good hands, I tried to play as tight as possible, if anything is left loose off the sidewalls you know he's going to take it in. I was surprised today because he didn't take it in as much as I thought and he hit a lot less errors than I thought too, so I had to win a lot of the points and I'm very glad to be through."

Zakaria's compatriot Youssef Ibrahim scored the only seeding upset of the day as he beat former World Champion Karim Gawad in four games. Top four seeds Mostafa Asal and Paul Coll has no trouble securing their quarter final spots, beating Gregoire Marche and Greg Lobban, respectively.

In the women's draw, all seeds progressed through to the final eight with Tinne Gilis surviving the biggest scare as she battled past good friend and former world No.3 Joelle King in five games. Two-time champion Nour ElSherbini, world No.5 Amina Orfi and USA No.1 Olivia Weaver were the other winners on day three.