Ibrahim Ousts American No.1 Weaver to Reach US Open Quarters

Egypt's world No.17 Sana Ibrahim claimed the biggest win of her career after defeating US No.1 Olivia Weaver to end home hopes on day three of the US Open Squash Championships powered by Comcast Business in Philadelphia.

Ibrahim had lost all six of her previous matches against Weaver coming into the match but the 23-year-old turned the form book on its head at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center, winning 11-8, 12-10, 13-11.

Weaver has had a stuttering start to the season due to an adductor injury, making her comeback at the Silicon Valley Open a fortnight ago with a quarter-final finish. The world No.5 fought back from five match balls down in the third, but it wasn't enough as Ibrahim closed out the victory.

"When I saw the draw for this tournament, I felt a little bit heavier for this match because last year I played Olivia in the quarters," said Ibrahim afterwards.

"I watched her play with Farida [Mohamed] at the Silicon Valley Open and then here two days ago with Lucy [Turmel] I know that physically she isn't the best, so I was playing on this and I felt really good on court.

"She wasn't moving like she usually does, but at the same time I couldn't play all the time into the front. She can still reach the ball, just not like before. I had to be patient to get my targets in the back. I'm moving well and I had to be sharp on the court, had to be patient, so I prepared for this match like it was going to be a tough five games. I'm happy that I got through in three."

Weaver's compatriot and women's wildcard Lucie Stefanoni also saw her tournament come to an end at the hands of Hania El Hammamy. The world No.2 will play No.8 seed Fayrouz Aboelkheir for a place in the last semi-finals, while four-time champion Nouran Gohar will go up against Ibrahim.

In the men's event, world No.12 Aly Abou Eleinen overcame Frenchman Baptiste Masotti in five games which, at 92 minutes in length, is the longest match of the tournament so far.

Eleinen battled through cramp to win 14-12 in a dramatic decider and his reward is a quarter-final meeting with world No.5 Karim Gawad, who required five games to beat England's Marwan ElShorbagy.

"At the end of that fifth game, I started cramping, it started first in my hands and then my calves, and then I couldn't really do much but just keep the ball in play," said Eleinen afterwards.

"He was match ball up, and then I just kept telling myself, just keep going. Everybody saw that I had a cramp, but he didn't, I tried to hide it from him as much as I could. Every time he looked at me, I tried to hide it, and the more I tried to hide it, the more the cramp kept coming. I got lucky on those match balls when he missed, but I kept fighting and I earned my way into the quarter-finals."

World No.2 Paul Coll and world No.6 Victor Crouin will meet for the fourth tournament in a row after they achieved respective wins against Englishman Sam Todd and the final men's US hope Nicholas Spizzirri.