The USA’s Sabrina Sobhy and Todd Harrity progressed to the second round of the Squash On Fire Open, while US Men’s No.1 Shahjahan Khan endured more torment at the hands of Nathan Lake, on an entertaining opening day in Washington DC.
World No.24 Sobhy, younger sister of World No.4 Amanda and a 2021 Squash On Fire Open semi-finalist, got the day’s play off to a perfect start for the home crowd when she downed Hong Kong’s Tze Lok Ho 3-0. While the match was a more even affair than the scoreline suggests, the 25-year-old American was deserving of the win, fully utilising her impressive pace to cover the entire court and keep Ho guessing.
Sobhy fought her way through two tight first games, claiming 12-10 and 11-9 wins to leave herself in a commanding position. The match appeared to be heading into a fourth game when Ho went 8-2 up in the third, only for a scoring blitz from ‘The Roadrunner’ to snatch the match in straight games with a 13-11 win to set up an all-American clash with No.4 seed Olivia Fiechter in the second round.
Speaking after the match, Sobhy said: “I’m feeling very pleased that I got through. We’ve never played before, or not since under 19s. It was difficult to have an 11am start and be the first match of the tournament, which is a new experience for me, so I’m just lucky I don’t have to deal with long jet-lag or anything. I’m honestly just pleased to get through to the second round.”
On playing in front of a home crowd, she added: “It’s very comforting knowing that I don’t have a very far travel to go, it just takes the pressure off. There’s a lot of pressure if you spend money on a flight to Cairo and then end up losing in 25 minutes in the first round, so it takes the pressure off when you know you’re only a couple of hours away from Philadelphia.”
Todd Harrity
Meanwhile, in the day’s final game on the glass court, World No.34 Harrity overcame a spirited second game charge from France’s Sebastien Bonmalais to ensure that the US would have representation in both draws tomorrow, after US No.1 Shahjahan Khan suffered his fourth defeat in two months to England’s Nathan Lake. Harrity, 31, had looked the sharper of the pair in the first game, before an epic duel in the second wowed the crowd.
Both players led on seven occasions in a helter skelter second game, with thrilling rallies at the front of the court dazzling the fans. Eventually, though, Harrity was able to break the deadlock, coming from 12-11 down to claim the game 14-12, much to the delight of the raucous home support.
The toil, emotional as much as physical, seemed to take its toll on Bonmalais in the third game, which Harrity was able to close out 11-4 to set up a second round match against Omar Mosaad.
Afterwards, Harrity said: “That second game was very important for me. It was very close and touch and go. At the end I felt I was getting tired, but I could feel he was getting tired, too and it was a good thing I won the first game because that gave me energy to push.”
On the Squash On Fire venue, he said: “It’s a great venue, a great court, and it’s great to be in DC. I have friends and family here who can come and watch. I have great memories of here, I won a national title here so I felt really confident today because I love playing in this venue.
“The crowd definitely helped me today. In the second game, I could hear my friends cheering and that really helps. It makes a big difference to have the crowd for you, rather than playing against a crowd, and I hope they cheer for me again tomorrow.”
Tsz Fung Yip
Outside of the American contingent, the biggest cheers of the day went to wildcards Ineta Mackevica and Karan Malik, both of whom coach at Squash On Fire. There was to be no fairytale for either player, though, with Latvia’s World No.43 Mackevica losing 3-0 to Malaysia’s Sivasangari Subramaniam and India’s World No.577 Karan Malik going down by the same scoreline to Scottish World No.40 Greg Lobban.
There was some joy for the wildcards, though, with the day’s biggest upset coming in the day’s second match on the side court, where Hong Kong’s wildcard Tsz Fung Yip beat Egypt’s Moustafa El Sirty 3-0 in just 25 minutes to earn a second-round matchup with Mexico’s No.8 seed Cesar Salazar.
Play at the Squash On Fire Open resumes tomorrow at 11:00 (GMT-5), with action being broadcast LIVE from both courts via the SQUASHTV Lite kit, on SQUASHTV.
Source: PSA