Team USA’s Amanda Sobhy edged teammate Olivia Blatchford Clyne in a four-game PSA World Championship presented by the Walter Family second round match on the glass court Sunday night in Chicago’s Union Station.
The twenty-five-year-old Americans have competed against each other since their early junior years and marked their seventh career encounter on the PSA World Tour in the Great Hall of Union Station.
It was Blatchford Clyne, world No. 19, who took control of the match early on, winning the first game 11-6. Sobhy, world No. 10, recovered in the second to grind out the match 6-11, 11-7, 11-1, 11-6 after thirty-four minutes.
“It’s never easy playing your teammate,” said 25-year-old Sobhy. “Sixty-four players in the draw and of course you draw your teammate. We’ve grown up playing against each other and it’s never easy. She had no pressure on her and I probably had a bit more pressure on me and she came out firing.”
Sobhy is through to the last sixteen of the PSA World Championships for just the second time in her career, in her fourth career tournament appearance.
“It was a bit more dead tonight then it was last night, I think the temperature has dropped quite a bit, so it was a bit of a lob-drop game and not very many long rallies, but I’m really happy to get through and make it through to the next round.”
Sobhy has a day of rest before facing world No. 2 and two-time world champion Nour El Sherbini Tuesday, February 26, at 7pm local time, 8pm EST.
Tickets are still available for all rounds of glass court play with prices ranging from $30 to $160 on ticketmaster.com. Live action up until the semi finals will be streamed on the PSA Facebook page and Facebook Watch. Watch all the glass court action from round one to the finals live on SQUASHTV.
