City Tattersalls Group Australian Open 2024 Semi Final: Top Seed Hany Downs Ibrahim

No.1 seed Salma Hany maintained her excellent streak at the City Tattersalls Australian Open to book her place in the final.

Hany overcame her Egyptian compatriot Sana Ibrahim 3-0 – and the World No.11 has yet to drop a single game on her way to the decider in Sydney.

It was the Egyptian duo’s first-ever meeting on the PSA World Tour and Ibrahim – featuring in her maiden semi final – made the brighter start, but the errors started to creep in as her eagerness to take the ball early resulted in costly errors. Hany posted six unanswered points as she found her length well to go one game up.

Ibrahim got off to a much-improved start in the second, storming into a 6-1 lead.

But that lead quickly evaporated as Hany notched eight points in succession without reply to nudge ahead, before converting game ball to double her advantage.

The pinpoint accuracy from Hany in the front and the back of the court made life difficult for Ibrahim, as Hany closed out the third 11-4 to seal her place in tomorrow’s decider.

“I feel pretty pleased with that performance today,” she said afterwards.

“I’ve been enjoying my time on court today and Sana [Ibrahim] is such a tough opponent. She had a very good win yesterday and she’s very skilful with her hands.

“I prepared pretty well for the match and I had a solid game plan and I’m glad I was able to execute it.

“I wasn’t very happy with the start of the second [game]. She was firing shots attacking and I felt like I dropped my focus slightly and I needed to get back to my plan and length was a little bit short.

“I focused on that and I was going to find the rhythm again and once I was able to do that, count the points and that game was crucial.”

Result:
[1] Salma Hany (EGY) bt [5] Sana Ibrahim (EGY) 3-0: 11-7, 11-8, 11-4 (36m)