Ghosal & Fiechter Fightbacks Secure Surprise ToC Semis

USA's Olivia Fiechter and India's Saurav Ghosal both mounted impressive comebacks to make the semi-finals of the JP Morgan Tournament of Champions after overcoming the challenges of Egyptians Rowan Elaraby and Youssef Ibrahim, respectively, in the PSA World Tour Gold event at Grand Central Terminal in New York.

The women's pair's last meeting came at last month's British Open, when American Fiechter won in straight games. On this occasion, Elaraby ensured the same scoreline wasn't replicated when she took the first game 12-10 in 14 minutes.

Fiechter had a huge mountain to climb after she lost the second game - but stuck to her task and straightened up her play from the back of the court to limit the attacking opportunities of her higher-ranked opponent. This tactic started to frustrate Elaraby with errors creeping into her game. Fiechter not only took the third game, but also continued her momentum to force a decider, winning both the third and fourth by an 11-8 scoreline.

The American ran out to a strong 4-1 lead in the fifth game but back came Elaraby and in the blink of an eye, the world No.8 found herself 8-6 up. For the second day in succession, Fiechter had to save a match ball, and after doing so, then won the next two points to claim a stunning victory, sending the home crowd into raptures at Grand Central Terminal.

"I'm a little tired, I'm lost for words," Fiechter said after her epic victory.

"I knew Rowan would be out for revenge, I got the better of her when we played in the British Open about a month ago. I knew she'd come out firing, I definitely had a slow start and she was playing well and everything seemed to be running away from me. I told myself to try and relax and keep retrieving balls and my goal in the match was to just get in front as much as possible and volley and I think I got better as the match went on. I'm at a loss for words.

"Fortunately, with my sports psychologist, Danny Massaro, we've been working on trying to stay positive and predict positive things, even in moments where things are running away from me and I'm feeling that I'm not hitting my targets, I can turn it around and play the match of my life. I'm not sure it was tonight but I'm just relieved that I could find a way through.

"It's so hard to believe, when I've played this event in the past, I've barely made the draw and just to be able to play on this court and to be able to come out and play again tomorrow and to try and book my place in the final is just incredible."

Fiechter will now play Egypt's Nouran Gohar in the semi-finals, after the world No.1 defeated Canada's Hollie Naughton. The other women's semi-final will see another battle between USA and Egypt, with world No.4 Amanda Sobhy and world No.7 Salma Hany set to meet on Friday evening.

In the men's event, world No.17 Saurav Ghosal reached his biggest PSA semi-final since 2019 after a magnificent performance which saw him take out Egypt's Youssef Ibrahim under the chandeliers of Grand Central Terminal's Vanderbilt Hall.

It was the pair's first Tour meeting and 35-year-old Ghosal - who has recently suffered with an abductor injury which saw him miss out on the Allam British Open - made the better start of the two. He had the superior line and length, meaning he was able to starve Ibrahim of the ball in the centre of the court, which is where the Egyptian is often at his deadliest.

The exciting squash continued into the second and third game. In the former, Ibrahim was able to level up after finally unleashing the attacking squash for which he is known and, in the latter, he was tested to the max by his opponent but just managed to get his nose ahead to take a 2/1 lead.

He was all at sea in the fourth game though and was outplayed by Ghosal, who controlled proceedings and moved the Egyptian into all four corners of the court to send the match into a decider.

The fifth game certainly didn't disappoint, with both players going toe-to-toe in front of a sell-out crowd. And it was Ghosal who managed to hold his nerve to get a massive win over the line and he will take on Peru's Diego Elias for a place in the final on Friday evening.

"It means so much, this is my 11th time here and I hadn't gotten this far," said Ghosal.

"I've been putting a lot of work in and it's good to see it come to fruition. For it to come fruition at somewhere like Grand Central Terminal is brilliant, I'm super happy.

"I don't think you can call Youssef an up-and-coming player anymore, he's chopping people that are much higher up. He's playing at such a high level, it's so difficult to play him. I had to be super disciplined in my head to execute the plan that David Palmer, who has been coaching me, had put together.

"He's going to be around for a really long time entertaining a lot of people around the world. I'm just glad that today we had such a good match and hopefully we can have a few more before I walk into the sunset."

Elias made his way through to the last four after beating French No.1 Gregoire Marche, while the other men's semi-final on Friday evening will see an all-Egyptian battle, and a repeat of the Houston Open final, as world No.2 Ali Farag takes on world No.8 Mazen Hesham.