Elshorbagy Conquers Coll To Reach Seventh US Open Semi

Fifth seed Mohamed Elshorbagy claimed the seventh US Open semi-final berth of his career after overcoming world No.1 Paul Coll in an epic 90-minute thriller in the PSA World Tour Platinum event at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia.

The Englishman has been in superb form this season and has already captured two titles, winning the Qatar Classic and NetSuite Open. Elshorbagy was slow to get going in the opening game and was dominated by the accuracy and solid play of Coll, who ran out to a 9-4 lead before converting 11-5.

ElShorbagy's quality returned in the second game as he stepped up the court, volleying with power and purpose to keep Coll on the move constantly. His intense volleying, coupled with his relentless hitting to the back of the court, was allowing Elshorbagy to take away all of the world No.1's threat in the front corners. The fifth seed gave himself a well-deserved 2/1 lead, winning the second and third games 11-7, 11-8.

Despite Coll steamrolling the fourth game to set up a decider, the momentum gathered was squashed by the former World Champion in the fifth game, as ElShorbagy intelligently set up attacking opportunities and punished them severely. After a brutal 22 minutes, 'The Beast' closed out the game 11-7 to move into his seventh U.S. Open semi-final and his first since 2019. The loss for Coll will also see him surrender his world No.1 spot to Egypt's Ali Farag in next week's rankings.

"There is a reason why I switched to play for England, it's because I wanted to have a great team behind me" said Elshorbagy after his win.

"Jade [the England physio] has been doing an incredible job on me this week. We will do a lot of work tonight on my body to come back fresh for tomorrow. I have so much trust in her, I have seen how she works on all the English guys, when I was playing Nick [Matthew] and James [Willstrop] and all these guys. So I can't wait to come back tomorrow.

"When you have played so much squash in your career - I think I read some stat that this is my twelfth quarterfinal in the US Open. So that shows the consistency that I have had over the years. I always give my best every time I go on court, I've barely pulled out of any tournament, I've always tried to be in the best shape I can. And that has always been my greatest strength over the years, it's that I've always showed up.

"I want to give some credit to Paul, he had so much to lose. I know how he felt, even when he changed the ball in the fourth how much he had the advantage. But in the fifth game with the pressure, anything can happen and I've been in that situation a million times and I just stayed aggressive. There is a reason for that because I've been in that situation probably more times than him."

Elshorbagy's opponent in the last four will be Peru's Diego Elias, who overcame Welshman Joel Makin in straight games to advance to his second successive semi. Makin came out to the better start of the two in the first game but, having led 9-7, failed to secure the crucial first game as Elias hung tough to win 11-9. After securing the game, Elias' intensity went up a notch. He took both the second and third games 11-6 to reach another Platinum event semi-final.

Both higher-seeded players Joelle King and Nour El Sherbini secured their places in the women's semi-finals. King was first to advance as she ended home hopes by beating USA's last remaining player in the draw, Sabrina Sobhy, in a close three-game clash.

The New Zealander's crisp length hitting was established early in the match and she managed to keep in front of Sobhy for large portions of the game. Sobhy was doing a great job of picking off the heavy attacks from King and earned the first game ball. King's determination was strong, however, and she impressively saved five game balls in the tiebreak to sneak the game 19-17.

The pressure from King continued to come in the back corners and King was now starting to step forward on the volley and take the ball short. Sobhy battled again and again and kept fighting her way back on the scoreboard. King managed to hold her off to take a crucial 2/0 lead, winning 11-9. With the home crowd silenced, King struck the fatal blow in the third game, taking it 11-8 to move into her first US Open semi since 2017.

"Sabrina is an incredible player. I've always known she's had it in her with what she has produced this week, and I'm just extremely proud that I hung on top in that first game and I think that was probably the difference today," said King afterwards.

"When I was her age, and I had a big win at a tournament, I know all those feelings that you have. So I tried to come out mentally strong today. To be honest, I tried to make it a bit of a mental game and tried a few tactics, but I think when you have a big win in a tournament, there's excitement and you've taken out the No.2 seed. I was aware of all her dangers, but I tried to stay mentally tough."

Six-time World Champion Nour El Sherbini looked slightly injured in her round three match against Tesni Evans just two days ago but showed no signs of that ankle injury as she confidently moved into the last eight by beating compatriot Salma Hany in the final match of the night's action.

Hany's game plan saw her look to test the movement of El Sherbini early on, but the 'Warrior Princess' was equal to the test. Her line and length game was superb and she hit her targets at the front of the court to claim an eighth successive win over world No.13 Hany.