Stefanoni Topples Hany To Reach Australian Open Semis

World No.19 Marina Stefanoni secured her third straight semi-final appearance on the PSA Squash Tour after upsetting world No.13 Salma Hany in a dramatic five-game encounter at the Squash Australian Open in Brisbane.

No.7 seed Stefanoni continued her rich vein of form with a back-and-forth 8-11, 15-13, 11-5, 9-11, 11-7 victory over the No.3 seed at the stunning South Bank Piazza.

In a match which saw multiple swings in momentum and regular stoppages of play, it was Stefanoni who made the quicker start in the all-decisive fifth game to set herself on course for victory.

Despite Hany battling back from 8-3 down to 8-6 down in the decider, the 2024 Australian Open champion's momentum was halted by an apparent hip injury, which forced her into taking an injury timeout. Upon the resumption of play, it was Stefanoni who managed to hold her nerve to stave off the resurgent Hany and seal the dramatic victory after 73 minutes of play.

After the match, Stefanoni said: "That win is definitely up there with my best! I played Salma a few weeks ago and she wasn't quite at her best physically with an injury of some kind. She was in full form tonight and it's great to be pushing these top girls in events such as this.

"It was very stop-start tonight. It was a big mental battle tonight. The support I got tonight, though, was incredible."

Stefanoni will face a familiar foe in the last four of the Gold-level event, with the 23-year-old taking on No.2 seed Tinne Gilis for the second time in as many weeks.

World No.10 Gilis continued her quest for back-to-back titles down under with an impressive straight games win over Egypt's Sana Ibrahim.

Gilis, who arrived in Brisbane on the back of a New Zealand Open title victory just last week - a run which included a semi-final victory over Stefanoni - delivered a commanding performance to advance to the semi-finals by an 11-8, 11-3, 14-12 scoreline.

In the men's draw, world No.9 Mohamad Zakaria and world No.6 Joel set up a rematch of their 125-minute marathon at last week's New Zealand Open after coming through their respective matches with Eain Yow Ng and Nicolas Mueller.

Two-time World Junior Champion Zakaria was forced to dig deep to secure his spot in the semi-finals after overcoming an impressive display from Malaysian No.1 Ng by an 11-7, 9-11, 11-8, 11-5 scoreline.

World No.19 Ng dominated the backhand line - a usual position of strength for Zakaria - for large portions of the 79-minute contest and looked well-placed to take a 2/1 lead when up on the scoreboard in the third game.

However, 18-year-old Zakaria showed impressive mental resolve to clinch the third from behind and race through the subsequent fourth when smartly taking advantage of the deader ball.

After the match, Zakaria said: "I didn't play my best tonight, but that's because of how well Yow played tonight. I think his backhand quality today was insane. I was trying to find a way to get myself out of there, when it's usually my best part on court. I wanted to play there, but he was limiting my options.

"I'm really happy to have found a way. I just told myself in the middle of the match, it's not about how you do when playing your best, it counts when I'm not finding my game."

Makin, meanwhile, had to be on his mettle to withstand an early barrage of attacking squash from Nicolas Mueller before eventually advancing to the last four by an 11-9, 11-3, 11-9 scoreline.

No.8 seed Mueller looked in irresistible form in the early stages of the match, firing in a number of high-tariff winners and looking on the cusp of taking the opening game. However, Makin stood firm to overturn the first-game deficit and, as Mueller's accuracy began to drop off, move through to an ultimately comfortable victory after 49 minutes of entertaining play.