Home Hero Steinmann Celebrates Maiden Gold Quarter-Final At Grasshopper Cup

Swiss No.1 Dimitri Steinmann has made the quarter finals of a PSA Squash Tour Gold-level event for the first time after defeating Mohamed ElSherbini at the Grasshopper Cup in Zurich.

The 27-year-old, who had won his previous two Tour encounters with the Egyptian, was provided with a stern test by ElSherbini in the best-of-three clash.

Steinmann, buoyed by a partisan crowd at Zurich Hauptbahnhof, dug deep as he found his marks well and forced a number of errors from ElSherbini's racket to win 13-11, 5-11, 11-8 for his breakthrough victory.

"It's an amazing feeling, first time quarter-final at a Gold event and what a way to do it!" he said afterwards.

"Thanks to Mo ElSherbini who played a fantastic match today, it was really tough out here.

"I was reminding myself of my coach - just keep it simple, try to do as much as I can. I think that made the difference in not making too many mistakes."

Turing his attention to his meeting with Egyptian Aly Abou Eleinen, the No.4 seed, Steinmann added: "We played recently in Germany and had a great match there. Looking forward to another big battle, let's bring it on!"

Elsewhere, Egypt's Nada Abbas is into the last eight of the Grasshopper Cup for the first time after dispatching former England No.1 Sarah-Jane Perry.

In her first appearance at this event, Abbas clinched a quarter-final spot in style, winning 11-8, 11-8 in 17 minutes.

"I am really happy to be through. SJ is one of the toughest players to play against - she is very skilful, very deceptive and she can come up with shots that you don't know where she is getting it from," she said.

"I did a few changes at the beginning of this year, I am just trying to enjoy it more and take it step by step, try to do what I am doing in training. I'm really glad it's working."