American No. 1, Harvard College student, Amanda Sobhy (world ranked 15) playing in the CIMB Malaysian Open 2014 reached the Semi-finals of this strong 32-player tournament today, Thursday Aug 21 by beating Habiba Mohamed of Egypt 11-5, 11-6, 11-7.
The tournament has attracted most of the top 25 players in the World including 8 of the top ten.
In the top half of the draw World No. 1 Nicol David has once again cruised through the tournament beating Qualifier, Liu Tsz-Ling of Hong Kong, Joshana Chinappa (21) of India and Annie Au (9) of Hong Kong to reach the Semi Finals. She will play World No. 3, Raneem El Weililiy of Egypt in the Semi-final tomorrow, Friday Aug 22.
Sobhy has had a relatively easy draw so far but has won all of her matches in 3-straight games. Seeded 10 and playing in the lower half of the draw she beat Samantha Teran (49) of Mexico, Delia Arnold (39) of Malaysia and Habiba Mohamed (41) of Egypt to reach the Semi-final.
Sobhy will now play Nour El Tayeb (25) also of Egypt for a place in the Final on Saturday Aug 23. Nour El Tayeb knocked out the World No. 2, Laura Massaro of England in round two of the competition and then beat Madeline Perry (11) of Ireland who retired in the 4th game.
The Harvard College student, still balancing squash with study is taking advantage of the summer break to play some of the World’s Top Squash tournaments. She will move on to play in the Hong Kong Open which starts next Tuesday, Aug 26.
