South Western Open Semis: The Stats & How to Watch Live

It’s semi-finals day at the South Western Open Presented by Cotidié and all of the action will be shown live from the Houston Squash Club SQUASHTV from 13:00 (GMT-5).

Squash fans can also keep up with the live scores from the event here.

Here’s the Order of Play for tonight

(All times are local GMT-5)

Amanda Sobhy v Nada Abbas

It’s been the Nada Abbas show so far in Houston with successive upsets of Olivia Clyne and Olivia Fiechter seeing her reach the semi-finals of a PSA World Tour Gold event for the first time.

Standing in her way will be the home favourite Amanda Sobhy, who has secured a spot in her third successive semi-final.

The American has seen previous title challenges this season thwarted by top three players Nouran Gohar and Hania El Hammamy, but this time around she will be the favourite going into today’s semi-final encounter with Abbas.

While the gap between the pair in the World Rankings would suggest that Sobhy will have the upper hand – Sobhy is ranked at No.5 compared to Abbas at No.22 – the fact that Sobhy has won all four of the pair’s previous meetings only serves to underline the challenge that faces Abbas tonight.

However, Abbas hadn’t beaten Fiechter in three matches before last night, while her only previous win against Clyne had come when the American had to retire injured. Abbas has been in red hot form and has shown that she has the talent and resilience to cause an upset.

Sobhy and Abbas haven’t met since the 2022 PSA World Championships, where the former had to come back from a game down to claim the win in four. The No.2 seed will have to be on her mettle to avoid a similar fate to her compatriots.

Salma Hany v Nour El Tayeb

Egyptian duo Salma Hany and Nour El Tayeb meet for the second time this month, with the former ending a three-match losing streak against her countrywoman when she scored a 3-2 win at the QTerminals Qatar Classic .

That win did come on the traditional plaster courts at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex and you have to go back to the 2020 J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions to find the last time Hany beat El Tayeb on a glass court.

El Tayeb has won seven of her nine matches against Hany, including the only time they have met in the latter stages of an event, which came at the 2022 CIB Zed Open title decider.

The pair have had contrasting routes through to the final. El Tayeb has only been on court for 43 minutes following comfortable wins over South Africa’s Alexandra Fuller and France’s Melissa Alves.

At 95 minutes, Hany’s court time more than doubles that of El Tayeb. While the World No.11 opened up with a comfortable win against Zeina Mickawy in round two, she had a testing encounter with Farida Mohamed last night, eventually claiming the win in four just past the hour mark.

The extra court time could play into Hany’s hands though, giving her the opportunity to adapt to the court conditions. That said, El Tayeb has looked ruthless so far and will be out for revenge following her defeat in Doha.

An exhibition match starring Karim Abdel Gawad and Mazen Hesham will follow the semi-finals – that will be streamed live on the PSA World Tour Facebook and YouTube channels.

Make sure you tune into the action this afternoon on SQUASHTV.