Gawad & Aboelkheir Survive Scares To Reach Karachi Open Quarters

Top seed Karim Gawad and No.3 seed Fayrouz Aboelkheir narrowly avoided shock second-round exits at the Rich Venus Karachi Open 2026, with the pair coming through nervy five-game encounters at the Gold-level event in Pakistan's largest city.

Former world No.1 Gawad, who, with victory this week, will overtake world No.3 Diego Elias in the PSA Rankings, battled back to defeat Pakistan's Muhammad Ashab Irfan in five games, while Aboelkheir edged past Hong Kong's Chan Sin Yuk in a thrilling fifth-game tie-break.

At 2/0 down, and 5-2 down in the third game, world No.4 Gawad looked in serious trouble against an inspired showing from world No.47 Irfan.

However, the 34-year-old drew upon all his years of experience to flip the match on its head as the physical toll of Ashab Irfan's early efforts began to tell.

The Egyptian clinched the key third game 11-8, before easing through the subsequent two games to book his spot in the quarter-finals after 56 minutes of play.

"I'm really happy to get through to the quarters today," Gawad said after the match. "Irfan was my training partner when I was in Houston, staying there for the full summer in 2023, so I knew how tough it was going to be today.

"I wasn't as quick as I should have been in the early stages. I wasn't there quite physically and I should have waited a little bit for my chances to attack. That is what I did in the final three games and I didn't allow him to attack as much."

Meanwhile, on the same court where she was crowned U23 World Champion last April, world No.9 Aboelkheir came through an entertaining five-game clash with the unseeded Sin Yuk.

In a match that pitted Aboelkheir against her opponent from that memorable day at DA Creek Club, the Egyptian was forced to maintain her composure deep in a frantic fifth game, saving a match ball at 11-10 down before clinching victory after 46 minutes of high-octane squash.

Elsewhere, Hong Kong's Alex Lau advanced to his first Gold-event quarter-final after overcoming an injury-hampered world No.6 Youssef Ibrahim in five games, setting up a tie with World Junior Champion Mohamad Zakaria.

Pakistan's Noor Zaman remains the sole home hope left in the event, following a contentious ending to his matchup with No.8 seed Fares Dessouky.

The Pakistani No.1 led 7-3 in the fifth game before a debate between Dessouky and the match referee ended in a conduct match being awarded in Zaman's favour.