Weaver & Gawad Score Silicon Valley Success

World No.5s Olivia Weaver and Karim Gawad have claimed the Silicon Valley Open 2025 presented Oracle NetSuite titles after securing respective four-game victories over Sivasangari Subramaniam and Victor Crouin on finals night in Redwood City in California, USA.

US No.1 Weaver delivered a statement of intent ahead of her return to the prestigious US Open in her hometown of Philadelphia next week, capturing her first title of the 2025/26 PSA Squash Tour season in a 12-10, 4-11, 11-4, 11-4 scoreline.

In a match full of momentum swings, the consistent play of top seed Weaver ultimately proved decisive, with the 30-year-old hanging tough amid an ultra-attacking performance from Malaysian No.1 Sivasangari.

After being on the backend of a one-sided second game win for Sivasangari, Weaver responded in impressive fashion, locking down the court with strong lines and lengths and moving through to defend her title at the Gold-level event after 47 minutes of play.

"I'm over the moon for sure," Weaver said after securing an 11th PSA Tour title. "I just didn't really know what to expect coming out here. I knew I had been feeling good all week coming in, but it's been a while since I've competed after the recent injury.

"It was really tough today. After that second game, the momentum was totally in her hands, and I had to dig deep to crawl my way out of that hole. I'm just really proud of myself for digging deep there.

"To battle through a match like that today just gives me that extra bit of confidence, just in my competitive edge and that competitive fighting spirit that I had to tap into today."

Meanwhile, No.2 seed Gawad claimed his 31st title on the PSA Squash Tour after overcoming the in-form French world No.9 Crouin by an 11-3, 2-11, 11-5, 12-10 margin.

Less than a fortnight on from his shock first-round exit from the Qatar Classic, Gawad delivered yet another reminder of his world-class ability in a high-quality performance which was packed with sublime attacking strokeplay.

Despite the impressive Crouin holding two game balls to send the match to a deciding game, former World Champion Gawad drew upon his wealth of experience in the pressure moments, reeling off four straight points to win his first title of the 2025/26 season.

After the match, Gawad said: "I'm very pleased, of course. After a good tournament at the Egyptian Open and some good squash, I had a bad tournament in Qatar.

"I did a lot of work with my team, of course, to try to step back and play some good squash. Mentally, it was very, very hard, but I just put it in my mind that it's just the start of the season. This happens sometimes, so I just try to regroup and focus again.

"The US Open is just three days from now, so I will now just focus on good recovery. It's good that I have the momentum and the confidence of playing good squash."

The next stop on the PSA Squash Tour is the Platinum-level Comcast Business US Open 2025, which takes place between October 11-15 and will be available to watch live on SQUASHTV.