The 2026 CIB Egyptian Open continues today at the OWest complex, with eight Qualifying Finals, today’s winners grabbing spots in the main draw – and a rest day!
You can Watch Live on SquashTV, follow on Live Scoring and Socials, and we’ll have results, reports and reaction right here.
- Draw Update : [4] Olivia Weaver, Melissa Alves, Sam Osborne-Wylde w/d, [LL] Main Draw spots
Reports and Reaction
Nour Khagafy (Egy) 3-2 [11] Tanvi Khanna (Ind) 11-9, 5-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-4 (63m)
Loved that game. When I spoke with Tanvi yesterday after her victory, she mentioned how tired she was after coming back from Japan (the Asian Games) and how she struggled to backup the good results she had lately and the expectations about her squash.
And today I feel it was the match too far. She did extremely fair to take the 4th, as she was running on fumes from the start of that game, but the 5th, nothing left in the tank, and the hard work Nour make her do throughout the match finally paid off. The Egyptian was able to execute her plan to perfection, clinically and prevent the Indian any hope of come back…
Very happy I stuck to my game plan and made her a bit nervous, with the quality of my attacking shots as well.
It’s my first Diamond event! It’s a relief, because I’ve been working really really hard. And I feel that my squash is at a level that allows me to compete with anyone and get good matches, not even wins.
I worked really hard to get to this point so it’s actually paying off. Very happy about this win.
[6] Ruqayya Salem (Egy) 3-0 [16] Menna Walid (Egy) 11-9, 11-4, 11-7 (30m)
Today, Ruqayya always looked the stronger player, more mentally than anything else. The lefthander was calm (looked like anyway), accurate with her basic game, and patient. In front, Menna, maybe more skilled with a racquet (but with the young Egyptians, it’s very subtle!), was alternating stunning shots with mishits and tins.
I didn’t felt at any time she was enjoying her time on court at all. Yesterday, she clinched a victory out of the racquet of Jana Swaify, a player she never beat before, coming back from 2/1 down and taking it 11/9 in the 5th!
I feel that that match might have left traces and pain in her legs, and also, drained her mentally. And today, the accuracy, the clinical approach from Ruqayya was just too damaging for Menna’s legs.
Qualifying for two back to back Diamond events is a reward for all the hard work I have produced for months, with all my coaches here and in the US, Wael El Hindi, my coaches from the Virginia Uni, and Omar Mosaad here of course.
Those two qualifications prove that I have the ability to play straight into the main draw, without the qualifications. I really wanted to prove myself, and that’s why I’m here.
We both wanted to take our space, play our shots the way we want to play them. She is a lot taller than me and a bit bigger, so sometimes it’s hard to get around her. But I was trying to get to my shots as fast as possible.
The ref was pretty good, he didn’t give any bad call or anything, he was trying to keep us both safe. He did a pretty good job!
