James Jettisons 5th Seed Ibrahim To Advance To Grasshopper Cup Quarters

England's world No.33 Declan James scored the only seeding upset on day two of the 2026 Grasshopper Cup, dispatching world No.7 Youssef Ibrahim, the tournament's No.5 seed, to progress to the quarter-finals of the PSA Squash Tour Gold event in Zurich.

James, who's been as high as 15 previously in the PSA World Rankings, is competing in the Grasshopper Cup for the first time since 2019 - this time earning his maiden last eight appearance.

The 33-year-old, who had never beaten Ibrahim on the PSA Squash Tour, secured a quarter-final berth in Gold-level event for the first time since his run to the London Classic semi-finals in 2024 by defeating Ibrahim 11-7, 11-9.

"He's a great player - he's been getting semis and finals of all the major events and he's one of the best in the world," said James post-match.

"I had to stick to my game plan and I came out and started well in the first and I had a good chat with Joel [Makin] in my corner about how to get better as the first game was good.

"But there was still improvements to be found in the second as he's always going to come out and respond and be better. I weathered a couple of hard storms in the second midway through."

Last year's runner-up Diego Elias kicked off his 2026 campaign with a 2/0 win against Fares Dessouky. Victor Crouin and Mohamed Abouelghar also notched straight games successes, seeing off Greg Lobban and Juan Vargas, respectively.

Elsewhere, No.6 seed Salma Hany fended off Lucy Turmel to advance to the women's quarter finals.

Hany, who was a semi-finalist last week at the Sportwerk Hamburg Open, won the opener 11-6 before Turmel stormed back with a comprehensive 11-2 triumph in the second.

Turmel, the world No.29 from England who arrived in Zurich off the back of winning the Copper-level Bermuda Open, stood toe-to-toe with Hany in the decider but it was the Egyptian who held her nerve to prevail 11-8.

"The ball was a little bit cold in the second and she had a really good start and she was going for shots all over the court," said Hany.

"All credit to her and that's something I'm going to have to adapt to and quickly because it's the best of three and you don't have time to risk losing in a game like that. I'm very happy to get through in the end.

"I think until six-all we were point for point and the difference is going to be how I cope in the crucial moments and luckily I was able to get that lead at the end and get the win."

Sivasangari Subramaniam produced a dominant display against Farida Mohamed to earn a spot in the last eight, Nada Abbas won the all-Egyptian battle with Mariam Metwally and top seed Amina Orfi downed Hollie Naughton.