Gear Topples Moataz To Reach Canadian Open Quarters

England's world No.41 Grace Gear scored the biggest upset on day three of the Canadian Women's Open 2026 by taking out world No.26 Hana Moataz at Brookfield Place in Toronto.

Gear, who defeated Moataz in their previous meeting on the PSA Squash Tour at the London Classic over a year ago, won in five games to claim her upset over the Egyptian to reach the Silver-level event quarter-finals.

After falling 2/1 behind, Moataz responded emphatically in the fourth game with a dominant 11-2 win to force a decider. The tournament's No.8 seed, recovered from 5-1 down to make it all square in the fifth game, but Gear held her nerve at the business end to close out a 11-8 triumph.

"I'm over the moon!" said the 28-year-old from Hertfordshire. "Coming into the tournament I hadn't had a win yet so to get the win the other day was really important for me.

"To get the win tonight, even more so. Hana is very in form; she just won a Copper event out in Brazil playing really good squash so I knew I had to bring my best game tonight, and I'm glad I managed to stick to the game plan."

Gear meets 2024 champion Tinne Gilis in the quarter finals on Wednesday evening after the Belgian overturned a 1/0 deficit to beat England's Torrie Malik 3/1.

England No.1 Georgina Kennedy began her Canadian Women's Open campaign with a 3/0 success over Zeina Mickawy.

Kennedy, runner-up to Amina Orfi last year, raced into a 2/0 lead before Mickawy looked to have muscled her way back into the contest when she had three game balls.

However the Egyptian failed to seize the opportunity, as Kennedy saved all three opportunities and converted her own match ball chance in the tiebreak to win 12-10.

"It's the first time playing her which is always fun," said Kennedy. "It's nice to play someone new on Tour, it doesn't happen much and I think she adapted better to the conditions tonight.

"It's very cold [on court], the ball softens up quickly and she's so dangerous, I wasn't finding my length and she rightfully was putting it away. So I need to tidy up my length a little bit and make sure it's getting a bit deeper tomorrow."

Kennedy will square off against Sin Yuk Chan for a semi-final spot following the Hong Kong 24-year-old's comfortable 3/0 win against Haya Ali.

Meanwhile, the quarter finals of the Smart Centres Canada Cup 2026, a men's Silver-level event, kicked off as former world No.1 Mohamed ElShorbagy beat Noor Zaman in a high quality battle.

In the final match of the evening, ElShorbagy earned his place in the last four by overcoming Zaman 14-12, 7-11, 11-8, 13-11 in 67 minutes.

ElShorbagy meets top seed Diego Elias on Thursday night for a spot in the final after the Peruvian ended Adam Hawal's strong run in Toronto.

Hawal, who claimed impressive back-to-back victories over Nicolas Mueller and Declan James, was unable to make it a hat-trick of upsets as Elias cruised to a 11-2, 11-8, 11-2 win.