El Hammamy Survives Five-Game Aboelkheir Thriller To Reach US Open Semis

Defending champion Hania El Hammamy came back from match ball down to prevail in a thrilling battle with fellow Egyptian Fayrouz Aboelkheir on the second day of quarter-finals at the US Open Squash Championships powered by Comcast Business.

El Hammamy, the current world No.2, had won all seven of their previous matches coming into the match but Aboelkheir has been in fine form this season after wins at the Swedish Open and Canada Cup - and pushed her compatriot hard at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia.

In an early contender for match of the season, El Hammamy was just a single point from exiting the tournament, but stayed mentally strong to overturn Aboelkheir's match ball before unleashing an almighty scream of celebration.

"Massive congratulations to Fayrouz for everything she has achieved over the last few months," said El Hammamy afterwards.

"I had to accept how gifted and talented she is on court. I'm trying to shift my mindset a bit that this could be one of the most important phases of my career.

"I'm approaching every match as if it's a big match now. I'm trying to regain my form and trying to find the performance and level of squash that I expect of myself. They're [other players] making it hard for me and I'm happy to get through another one today."

El Hammamy will lock horns with four-time champion Nouran Gohar for a place in the final - 14 months after they played the last of their 34 matches on the PSA Squash Tour.

Like El Hammamy, Gohar had to battle hard to book her spot in the semi-finals, coming back from 2/1 down to beat world No.17 Sana Ibrahim by an 11-5, 4-11, 5-11, 11-9, 11-0 margin to extend her winning run at the US Open to 23 matches.

Gohar - who returned to the tour in September after a year away from the sport due to the birth of her daughter - has won 22 matches to El Hammamy's 12 and it's their first meeting since the semi-final of last year's CIB Egyptian Open, which El Hammamy won in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

"When you're out for a year, not everything comes together at the same time," Gohar said.

"I know I have it in me, I've been training so hard and there are a lot of things behind the scenes that happened. If somebody would have told me that I would be in the semis, I wouldn't have believed them. I'm very proud of myself, but I'm far from done."

In the men's event, world No.2 Paul Coll and world No.12 Aly Abou Eleinen will go head-to-head for a place in the title decider following wins over world No.6 Victor Crouin and world No.5 Karim Gawad, respectively.

Coll came back from 10-5 down in the fourth game of his contest with Crouin to avoid the match going to a decider, while it's his third win in four matches against the Frenchman, with the pair meeting in every tournament so far this season.

"It's annoying, he started dominating me on the volley, and it took me a game and a half to use my brain," said Coll, the 2023 champion.

"I watched a movie last night, it was called Unbroken, and that was the mantra I took in to today. It felt like I got hit in the head time and time again, but I had to switch myself back on. I wanted to trust my game and I'm happy I pulled through in that fourth."

Meanwhile, Eleinen has reached his second major PSA semi-final after beating world No.5 Karim Gawad 11-4, 9-11, 11-6, 11-2. Eleinen also reached the last four of this tournament two years ago and will look to reach his maiden Platinum final when he takes on Coll. Coll has won all three of their matches.

"It's a big moment for me, you have no idea all of the ups and downs I have had to go through," Eleinen said.

"I had that high here a couple of years ago and I didn't know if I would be able to get back here again. You put in a lot of hard work with your team and I don't want to take it for granted, I want to keep pushing."