Finland's fifth seed Olli Tuominen was taken the full distance on the opening day of the EBS Dayton Open before beating Egyptian qualifier Yasser El Halaby in five games in the 5-star PSA Tour squash event in Dayton, USA.
After losing the first two games, the flying Finn from Helsinki survived two further tie-break games to win 10-11 (0-2), 5-11, 11-10 (2-0), 11-6, 11-10 (3-1).
Tuominen will now meet second seed Thierry Lincou after the Frenchman despatched Mexican Eric Galvez 11-4, 11-7, 11-4.
Lincou is expected to meet top seed David Palmer in the final. The former world number one from Australia earned his place in the quarter-finals by beating French qualifier Julien Balbo 11-4, 11-5, 11-6.
1st round:
[1] David Palmer (AUS) bt [Q] Julien Balbo (FRA) 11-4, 11-5, 11-6
[7] Cameron Pilley (AUS) bt [Q] Tarek Momen (EGY) 10-11 (0-2), 11-7, 11-3, 11-9
[3] Karim Darwish (EGY) bt Robert McFadzean (USA) 11-6, 11-2, 11-5
[8] Borja Golan (ESP) bt Jonathan Kemp (ENG) 11-5, 11-2, 11-10 (2-0)
[6] Hisham Mohd Ashour (EGY) bt Renan Lavigne (FRA) 11-7, 8-11, 11-9, 11-5
[4] Mohammed Abbas (EGY) bt [Q] Julian Illingworth (USA) 11-6, 11-2, 11-5
[5] Olli Tuominen (FIN) bt [Q] Yasser El Halaby (EGY) 10-11 (0-2), 5-11, 11-10 (2-0), 11-6, 11-10 (3-1)
[2] Thierry Lincou (FRA) bt Eric Galvez (MEX) 11-4, 11-7, 11-4