Hany Upsets Watanabe to Join Unseeded El Torkey In Silicon Valley Semis

World No.15 Salma Hany progressed to her first Gold-level semi-final since October 2023 after toppling world No.7 Satomi Watanabe in four games at the Silicon Valley Open 2025 presented by Oracle NetSuite in Redwood City, USA.

No.7 seed Hany's impressive victory saw her join unseeded compatriot Kareem El Torkey in the winners' circle at Squash Zone, after the 21-year-old claimed a bittersweet victory over an injury-stricken Aly Abou Eleinen to reach his maiden PSA Squash Tour Gold semi-final.

In a match ultimately decided by fine margins, it was the sublime short game of Hany that proved decisive against Watanabe, with the 29-year-old moving through to take the quarter-final win by an 11-13, 11-8, 11-9, 11-8 scoreline.

In all four games, it was Hany who came out of the blocks the quickest, racing into 7-4, 5-1, 6-2, and 6-3 leads which ultimately left Watanabe with too much work to do. Hany's reward is a semi-final meeting with Malaysian No.1 Sivasangari Subramaniam, who got the better of home favourite Amanda Sobhy in a hard-fought four-game duel.

After the match, Hany said: "Satomi has been playing amazingly lately. I thought if she was to win today, she would need to earn it and dig really deep.

"I love the city, I love the event and I love the crowd here as well. I thought it was the perfect week to play some great squash.

"The tour is so strong nowadays. There are about 16 players all fighting to be in the top ten and it's really hard to keep momentum. I feel I'm playing as well now as I was when I was at world No.7″

Meanwhile, world No.35 El Torkey's dream run in California continued after he progressed past close friend Eleinen by a 6-11, 11-5, 11-3, 11-7 scoreline.

Despite opening up the match in strong style, finding an accurate line and length and moving into a one-game lead, Eleinen began clutching his lower back in pain as the second game commenced, with the issue becoming ever more apparent as the match progressed.

Eleinen battled on throughout the match gamely, but rarely troubled El Torkey thereafter, with the unseeded Egyptian wrapping up the win after 38 minutes of play.

"Aly has always been a big brother to me," El Torkey admitted after the match. "We've trained together for the last couple of months, and he always pushes me and has given me so much advice.

"I'm not happy to win this way, I knew that if he wasn't hurting as much it would have gone another way. I'm not feeling that fire inside me, that winning feeling, that's not today."

El Torkey will face former world No.1 Karim Gawad in the semi-finals after 'The Baby-Faced Assassin' put in a masterful display to hold off rising star of the sport, Jonah Bryant, in three games.

The other two winners in the men's event were world No.1 Mostafa Asal and world No.9 Victor Crouin, who will now face off for a spot in the title decider.

French No.1 Crouin took his record at the start of the 2025/26 season to nine wins from 10 matches following a clinical straight games win over England's Curtis Malik, while top seed Asal got the better of the other Frenchman in the draw, Baptiste Masotti, by an 11-9, 11-5, 11-3 scoreline.

Elsewhere, training partners Georgina Kennedy and Olivia Weaver set up a semi-final date with one another after the pair claimed respective wins over Egyptian duo Malak Khafagy and Sana Ibrahim.

Kennedy, who over the summer joined Weaver as one of the players working under the guidance of coach Rod Martin, delivered a much-improved performance from her edgy second-round win over Rachel Arnold, getting the better of the unseeded Khafagy by an 11-6, 11-6, 11-3 scoreline.

US No.1 Weaver, meanwhile, continued her quest for a second consecutive title at Squash Zone with a commanding 11-6, 11-6, 11-5 win over Egypt's Ibrahim.