Tesni Takes Down No.4 Seed Abbas To Gatecrash Canadian Open Semis

The semi-finalists of the Canadian Women's Open 2024 were confirmed at Brookfield Place in Toronto with Tesni Murphy scoring the pick of the upsets as the Welsh No.1 downed No.4 seed Nada Abbas in a 75-minute five-game thriller.

Abbas started the stronger of the two and took advantage of a lacklustre start from the Welsh star to win 11-5. A much more competitive game followed as Murphy started to find her length on the court and her front court skills and subtleties started to creep in and put pressure on the Egyptian. Murphy earned the first game ball of the second game at 10-9 but it wasn't until 15-13 that she was able to equalise.

The pair then shared the third and fourth games with a few refereeing decisions creeping into a quality match. Murphy claimed the fourth 11-7 and orchestrated to the crowd to feed off their energy. In an edgy and tightly contested fifth game, both players went through patches of dominance. It was Murphy who earned the first match ball at 10-9 but was unable to convert. Another chance presented itself for the No.8 seed at 11-10 to which she slammed an inch perfect forehand drive down the wall to seal her place in the final four.

"She started really well and then I came back into it, but we both went through quite good patches and bad ones," said Murphy afterwards.

"When it gets that close in the fifth game, I was only thinking about winning. It's all about who could hold their composure together the best and thankfully I think that was me today and I managed to get over the line.

"Since the US Open, I felt like I've been moving really well and when that comes together for me, I think I can be a difficult opponent for anyone so, with that I'm just really excited for tomorrow's semi-final."

Murphy will take on No.2 seed Tinne Gilis in her semi-final after the Belgian scored a birthday win by beating England's Jasmine Hutton in straight games. The world No.6 was in scintillating form and hardly missed a target as she stormed to victory.

The top half semi-final will be played between No.3 seed Amanda Sobhy and France's Melissa Alves. Sobhy won the opening match of the day, as she had no trouble in moving past England's former world No.5 Sarah-Jane Perry. The USA No.2 was better in all areas and showed no signs of her recent Achilles injury, romping to a 3/0 win.

Alves, who scored a superb win over top seed Nele Coll in round two, spoilt the Canadian party as she defeated the only remaining home player in the draw, Hollie Naughton, in straight games.

The Frenchwoman was still beaming with confidence in the early stages of the clash and took a confident 2/0 lead to silence the knowledgeable crowd. In an entertaining third game, both players squandered several chances to take the game but it was eventually Alves who prevailed 17-15 to book her spot in the last four.

In the Cambridge Group of Clubs Classic, an accompanying men's Copper event, top seed and world No.26 Baptiste Masotti survived a huge scare, saving a total of seven match balls against Shahjahan Khan to avoid an early exit, winning 3/2. He'll now face compatriot Gregoire Marche in the top half semi-final whilst Mexico's Leonel Cardenas will face Daniel Poleshchuk in the other.