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Tesni Evans is the pride of Welsh squash after earning another exhausting, magnificent victory at the FS Investments US Squash Open.
The Commonwealth Games bronze medallist has powered into the last four after beating New Zealand’s Joelle King, who won gold on the Gold Coast earlier this year, and England’s Sarah-Jane Perry, the silver medallist.
Evans has made history by becoming the first Welsh woman or man to reach a US Open semi-final and said: “I’m an extremely proud Welsh person and it makes me really happy that I can break as many records as possible.
https://twitter.com/PSAWorldTour/status/1050522584645812226
“I’m incredibly happy that I’m the first one to do it at this event and hope there are many more after me.
“It’s one of my favourite events. I love the place, I stay with a really good family and feel really good here.”
Evans defeated England’s World number eight Perry in five games and now plays second seed Raneem El Welily (Egypt) in her semi-final.
Cardiff-born World number 12 Evans went into the last eight clash with Perry knowing she had never beaten the English player.
Perry had won all of their six previous matches and won last week’s Oracle NetSuite Open in San Francisco, stormed into a 2-1 lead at Drexel University’s Daskalakis Athletic Center in Philadelphia.
https://twitter.com/welsh_wizards/status/1050514535449325568
Evans, aged 25, made a strong start and took the first 11-9, but Perry hit back ahead and won the second and third 11-5, 11-6 games.
In the fourth, Perry saved four game balls before being edged out 11-8 by the tenacious, aggressive and gutsy Evans to force their quarter-final into a decider.
The Welsh champion came out hard in the fifth and opened a 5-0 lead before clinching victory 11-8 after a match which lasted 71 minutes.
“I’m really pleased with my performance today,” said Evans. “I’ve always struggled, and still do, against SJ.
“I find her style doesn’t seem to suit me and I could not be happier that I played well in this one.”
Now Rhyl-based Evans faces another huge test in the semi-finals against second seed El Welily, who defeated England’s Laura Massaro, the World number six, 11-7, 11-2, 12-10.
“Laura is never easy to play against,” said El Welily. “We’ve played each other 30 times, which I didn’t realise until after this match. That’s a lot.
“We have been playing each other for a long time now and it wasn’t easy. Yes, it was 3-0, but you can see from the scoreline it was close, particularly in the third.
“Laura was moving me all around the court. Maybe I played safe a little bit, maybe I wanted to win too much so that put a bit of pressure on me, but overall I’m happy to have won.
come out as a winner today and it was a good match.”
El Welily, the reigning women’s World champion, holds a 6-0 record against Evans, including a 3-0 second round victory last year in Philadelphia.
https://twitter.com/USOpenSquash/status/1050566682698244098
FS Investments US Open results:
Men’s quarter-finals:
[1] Mohamed ElShorbagy (Egypt) bt Mohamed Abouelghar (Egypt) 3-0: 11-9, 11-9, 11-4 (46m)
[8] Paul Coll (New Zealand) bt [3] Tarek Momen (Egypt) 3-2: 6-11, 11-8, 5-11, 11-7, 13-11 (96m)
[4] Simon Rцsner (Germany) bt [5] Miguel Angel Rodriguez (Colombia) 3-0: 11-9, 11-6, 11-5 (41m)
[2] Ali Farag (Egypt) bt [6] Gregory Gaultier (France) 3-2: 6-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-9, 11-2 (74m)
Semi-finals (to be played today)
[1] Mohamed ElShorbagy (Egypt) v [8] Paul Coll (New Zealand) 5.45pm Philadelphia time, 10.45pm UK time
[2] Ali Farag (Egypt) v [4] Simon Rusner (Germany) 7.15pm Philadelphia time, 12.15am UK time
Women’s quarter-finals:
[1] Nour El Sherbini (Egypt) bt Yathreb Adel (gyst) 3-0: 11-3, 11-3, 11-8 (23m)
[5] Camille Serme (France) bt Amanda Sobhy (USA) 3-0: 11-5, 11-8, 11-7 (30m)
[12] Tesni Evans (Wales) bt [7] Sarah-Jane Perry (England) 11-9, 5-11, 6-11, 11-8, 11-8 (71m)
[2] Raneem El Welily (Egypt) bt [7] Laura Massaro (England) 3-0: 11-7, 11-2, 12-10 (32m)
Semi-finals (to be played today)
[1] Nour El Sherbini (Egypt) v [5] Camille Serme (France) 5pm Philadelphia time, 10pm UK time.
[12] Tesni Evans (Wales) v [2] Raneem El Welily (Egypt) 6.30pm Philadelphia time, 11.30pm UK time
