Romiglio Romps Into Hong Kong Open L16

Argentina's unseeded Leandro Romiglio became the lowest-ranked player to make the L16 of the men's TTI Milwaukee Hong Kong Open after saving multiple match balls before upsetting England's Adrian Waller in a 74-minute second round classic.

Romiglio made his PSA debut in 2009 and only broke into the world's top 40 last month. His 9-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-4, 13-11 win over Waller takes the Prague-based 32-year-old into the last 16 of a PSA World Tour Platinum event for the first time in his career.

The world No.42 now faces four-time champion Mohamed ElShorbagy for a place in the quarter-finals. The fourth-seeded Englishman, ranked 5 in the world, needed only 23 minutes to overcome France's Baptiste Masotti 11-3, 11-3, 11-7.

Meanwhile, defending Hong Kong Open champions Mostafa Asal and Hania El Hammamy made successful starts to their title defences, defeating Youssef Ibrahim and Sabrina Sobhy, respectively, on day two at the Hong Kong Squash Centre.

Asal downed Ibrahim in straight games to book his place in the third round, while El Hammamy came from one game down to overcome Sobhy.

World No.3 Asal was facing Ibrahim for only the second time on the PSA World Tour after their encounter at the El Gouna International back in June.

Asal won 3-0: 11-7,11-9,11-7 to tee up a third round clash with fellow Egyptian Youssef Soliman tomorrow.

"It's really difficult to play Youssef [Ibrahim] in the first round," Asal said.

"When I saw the draw I thought, 'oh my god - what a nightmare for me!'. Youssef and I are great friends on and off the court, it was a respect game.

"I have a lot of respect for Youssef and he's one we all looked up to as juniors and how fantastic he is. It's great to see him back after a few injuries and I'm so pleased with the win. It was a good match today."

Meanwhile El Hammamy - who had been beaten by Sobhy at the Paris Squash 2023 earlier this season - overturned an 11-7 defeat in the first game to win the next three games 11-5,11-7,11-8.

"That was definitely tough, the last two meetings went in her favour, so I just tried to prepare myself and watch back the matches I lost against her and pick up the mistakes that I made," El Hammamy said post-match.

"I felt at the beginning of the match I was overhitting my length, and that was because of a fast ball. When we changed the ball I think that my length became even better because I wasn't overhitting it and it was a slower ball.

"I think the change of ball came to my favour, for sure."