Giantkiller Lee Advances To Maiden World Tour Final In New York
10 Oct 2024
Hong Kong's Ka Yi Lee produced a third successive upset at the 2024 Open Squash Classic in New York to defeat world No.26 Hollie Naughton and reach the first World Tour final of her career.
Elsewhere at Open Squash FiDi, top seeds Marwan ElShorbagy and Farida Mohamed earned their places in Thursday's finals and No.2 seed Victor Crouin continued his strong form to defeat Colombia's Miguel Rodriguez.
Lee came into her first World Tour semi-final by defeating No.7 seed Nadine Shahin in the second round, before backing that performance up with a win over world No.14 Nada Abbas in the quarter-finals, while Naughton beat out No.5 seed Mariam Metwally to reach the semi-final stage.
Ka Yi Lee, who before the tournament had not won a match on Tour since December 2023, started confidently and reached 9-6, but a brilliant run of five unanswered points from the Canadian earned the No.3 seed game one.
Lee rediscovered the rich vein of form that helped her past the No.2 seed in the last round and began placing her shots with pin-point accuracy, managing to force Naughton around the court when given the opportunity and took the second and third games 11-9, 11-7.
The pair looked more evenly matched as the Canadian tried to mount a comeback, but Lee was indomitable as she pushed on from 3-4 to 11-7 to claim a place in the final.
"I'm really excited right now," said the 30-year-old after her victory. "I never thought I'd make it to a Bronze-event final, so I'm really happy.
"Playing without pressure, of course I'll have a bit, but I think the most important thing is to focus on myself, play my own game, play my own lob, my own length, rather than thinking about who's the highest seed."
Speaking on her final clash with No.1 seed Farida Mohamed, Lee admitted: "To be honest, I haven't thought of Farida, because I didn't think of myself getting to the final... but I will try to prepare myself."
In the first men's semi-final, No.1 seed Marwan ElShorbagy faced Scottish No.4 seed Greg Lobban for a chance to reach his first final since last season's Pittsburgh Open.
It was a mammoth 24-minute first game between the Englishman and the Scotsman as the pair couldn't be separated to 14-14. The game was filled with decisions from referee Daniel Greco due to traffic issues, but also high-quality squash, as evidenced in an early shot-of-the-season contender from Lobban at 6-6.
In line with the close nature of the first game, both players had chances to take a 1/0 lead, but it was Lobban who earned the early advantage as ElShorbagy struck the tin on his backhand at 15-14.
The top seed began to assert his influence on the match after losing game one, with the court conditions favouring the more aggressive playing style of ElShorbagy, and the World No.10 quickly restored parity at one-all before pushing on to win the match in four games, with the last three combined lasting only slightly longer than the opener.
"I'm very happy to win today against Greg," said ElShorbagy after the match. "He's been playing well. It was tough.
"I think I found my length. I started focusing on where I'm hitting the ball. I was trying to hit every ball with a purpose, and it worked very well after the first game.
"I haven't been in a final since Pittsburgh, I haven't won an event actually since The Hong Kong Football Club Open 2022 so it would be good to be in another final and hopefully try and win."
In the first women's semi-final, top seed Farida Mohamed defeated England's Katie Malliff in emphatic fashion to reach the final without dropping a single game throughout the tournament.
Mohamed looked comfortable throughout, and was able to move up the court and force Malliff into energy-sapping recoveries around the back of the court.
Malliff did see glimpses of the form that helped her to early-round success as she mounted comebacks in the first and third game, but both were in vain as the Egyptian continued her perfect 3/0 record in the tournament.
In a thrilling conclusion to an exciting night of squash at Open Squash FiDi, France's Victor Crouin looked impressive to progress after claiming victory over No.4 seed Miguel Rodriguez.
Despite plenty of shots and action-packed rallies that roused cheers from the full crowd, Crouin was not to be deterred as he pushed on to a quick-fire 3/0 win over the 38-year-old to reach his first final since March's Australia Open