Unseeded Ibrahim Reaches Maiden Major Quarter-Final

Sana Ibrahim continued her dream run at the 2024 CIB Egyptian Open when the unseeded Egyptian took down compatriot Nour Heikal to reach the quarter-finals of a major event for the first time as the third round of the Diamond-level event at Club O West in Giza drew to a close.

The 21-year-old world No.32, who stunned world No.4 Nele Gilis in the second round, was dominant in her match against world No.71 Heikal, who was playing her sixth match of the tournament after going through three qualifying matches to reach the main draw.

In the opening game, both players played almost exclusively at the front of the court, resulting in a rapid-fire shootout that was decided as much by who made fewer errors as who put in dangerous shots.

After edging the first game 11-9, Ibrahim began targeting the back, instantly exposing her opponent's lack of experience, with Ibrahim delivering a crushing 11-1 scoreline to double her lead, before ending the contest with an 11-6 victory in game three.

Afterwards, Ibrahim said: "I'm so happy and proud of myself. I had so many messages on social media about how high my ranking could go. I tried not to focus on this, because I would get so nervous!"

Ibrahim's opponent in the next round will be compatriot and club-mate Nada Abbas, who produced an epic comeback as she fought back from two games down to upset world No.9 Sivasangari Subramaniam of Malaysia.

Afterwards, the world No.17 said: "The old me would have over thought and got frustrated at myself. But today at 0/2 down I was like 'okay I'm 0/2 down, let's forget it and play game by game, point by point and see how that goes.' Even if I was going to lose I didn't want to lose like this. I want to give a good fight."

Also through in the women's draw were Egyptian duo Nouran Gohar and Rowan Elaraby, with world champion Gohar beating USA's Amanda Sobhy 3/0 and No.7 seed Elaraby defeating Scotland's Georgia Adderley 3/1.

In the men's event, English brothers Mohamed ElShorbagy and Marwan ElShorbagy were in impressive form at Club O West, with Marwan avenging his Tournament of Champions defeat to Victor Crouin with a 3/1 win over the Frenchman and Mohamed beating India's Ramit Tandon in straight games.

Joining them are New Zealand's Paul Coll, who breezed past Malaysia's Eain Yow Ng, and Egypt's Mostafa Asal, whose match against compatriot Youssef Soliman ended after two minutes due to an injury to his opponent.