Watanabe Overcomes Orfi To Join Egyptian Trio in Palm Hills Finals

World No.9 Satomi Watanabe has progressed to the second Gold-level final of her career following a brilliant four-game upset over world No.5 Amina Orfi at the Palm Hills Open in Cairo.

Watanabe, the No.3 seed, will join Egyptians Mostafa Asal, Nouran Gohar and Karim Gawad in the finals of the PSA Squash Tour Gold event after defeating teenage star Orfi by a 7-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-8 margin.

After a first game littered with inaccurate periods of play, Watanabe bounced back impressively on the all-glass court at Golf Central Mall, taking the subsequent two games with some sublime attacking squash.

It was the variety of shot-making from Watanabe which continued to prove crucial as the match entered the fourth game, with the Yokohama-born player striking winners of all types into the front of the court.

Despite Orfi saving two match balls from 10-6 down, Watanabe hung tough to close out the match after 54 minutes of high-quality play.

"It's definitely never easy playing Amina," Watanabe said after the match. "Every day there are different conditions and the first game was really for me to adjust and to see how I'm hitting the ball and how the lengths are dropping. There was a lot of unforced errors but I wasn't really too stressed about it - I knew what I was doing.

"I stuck with the same game plan that was winning me points. I just trusted that process and it turned out to be a really good plan tonight."

Watanabe will face world No.1 Nouran Gohar in the women's final after the 2024 World Champion powered past fellow Egyptian Fayrouz Aboelkheir in straight games.

Gohar overturned a slow start in the first game, which saw her fall 7-3 behind to the world No.15, to record an ultimately comfortable 11-9, 11-4, 11-5 victory.

Meanwhile, in the men's draw, Karim Gawad came out on top in a battle of former World Champions, defeating No.2 seed Tarek Momen in straight games.

Gawad and Momen, the respective 2016 and 2019 World Champions, were facing off for the 15th time on the PSA Squash Tour, with Gawad having won 12 of these meetings. And the No.3 seed extended this impressive head-to-head record with an 11-9, 11-8, 11-6 victory.

After the match, Gawad said: "I played a 40-minute match yesterday and he played a 106-minute match and he came up today firing and moving like a 17-year-old. He's a great legend, on and off court, all respect to him.

"I've learned a lot from him and I can't say how much experience I've gained from him since I was watching him as a young kid playing in tournaments at juniors. I feel honoured to share the court with him today and he's a great friend of mine, on and off court."

Gawad's opponent in the title-decider will be recently crowned World Champion Mostafa Asal.

The top seed's semi-final with Youssef Soliman was cut short after the world No.11 withdrew mid-way through the third game due to injury.