El Hammamy Scrapes Past Teen Sensation Orfi To Reach World Quarters

Hania El Hammamy avoided a shock defeat against 15-year-old rising star Amina Orfi when the world No.3 from Egypt won a nail-biting five-game thriller at Union Station in Chicago to reach the women's quarter-finals of the PSA World Championships presented by the Walter Family.

After Orfi became the youngest player in history to appear in the third round of the sport's most prestigious tournament, the world No.61 came close to causing one of the event's biggest ever upsets! Orfi fought back from two games down against a stunned El Hammamy, with the No.3 seed eventually squeezing out the win by an 11-9 scoreline in a pulsating fifth game.

El Hammamy will now aim to avenge her British Open defeat to US No.1 Amanda Sobhy when the 22-year-old from Cairo takes on the world No.5 in the next round.

"I'm not happy with the way I played after being 2/0 up," said El Hammamy.

"I've been a youngster myself, so I knew the excitement and courage that Amina would play with. She's the World Junior Champion, she's still only 15 and look how well she is playing now. I'm sure we'll have some real battles in the future.

"I'm not thinking about it [the World Championship title], I'm just trying to bring my 'A' game in the upcoming rounds."

Men's top seed Mostafa Asal got his revenge over world No.10 Joel Makin to secure his last eight spot. The Welshman beat Asal in a brutal 96-minute battle during the semi-finals of March's Canary Wharf Classic, but this time around it was the Egyptian who emerged victorious, winning 12-10, 11-6, 9-11, 11-5 in 85 minutes. He will play compatriot Mazen Hesham next.