Saturday’s Quilter Cheviot Cannon Kirk Irish Open finals in Dublin will feature an all-Egyptian women’s decider followed by an unexpected English-Japanese men’s showdown.
Women’s No.1 Nada Abbas, the Irish Open title winner in 2024, will face teen sensation Nadien Elhammamy after the 19-year-old PSA No.5 impressively took out No.2 seed Zeina Mickawy, the PSA No.30.
Fifth seed Elhammamy, the PSA No.42, had never played Mickawy before, but she made light work of their first encounter, winning 3-0 to book another first-time date with Abbas, who had to dig deep in her semi-final to progress.
Up against Nardine Garas, the PSA No.38, Abbas jumped into a 2-0 lead, but she then lost her way and was reeled in level before eventually winning the fifth game 11-4.
The men’s showpiece will be a clash between No.4 Sam Todd and No.6 Ryunosuke Tsukue.
English player Todd, the PSA No.43, was a solid 3-1 winner over Emyr Evans, the unseeded Welsh PSA No.75, who blew the tournament open on Wednesday when he ambushed Greg Lobban, the PSA No.26 Scot who was the defending Irish Open champion.
No.2 seed Matias Knudsen was expected to make the final. However, in another result reflective of the overall high level of competition in Dublin, the PSA No.47 from Colombia was picked off 3-1 by Ryunosuke Tsukue, the PSA No.61 from Japan.
Women’s semi-finals, Friday
🇪🇬 Nada Abbas (No.1 seed and PSA No.16) WON 3-2 (11-8, 11-7, 11-13, 6-11, 11-4) v Nardine Garas (No.4 seed and PSA No.38) 🇪🇬
🇪🇬 Nadien Elhammamy (No.5 seed and PSA No.42) WON 3-0 (11-4, 11-7, 12-10) v Zeina Mickawy (No.2 seed and PSA No.30) 🇪🇬
Women’s final, Saturday
1pm: 🇪🇬 Nada Abbas (No.1 seed and PSA No.16) v Nadien Elhammamy (No.5 seed and PSA No.42) 🇪🇬
Men’s semi-finals, Friday
🇯🇵 Ryunosuke Tsukue (No.6 seed and PSA No.61) WON 3-1 (11-8, 11-8, 7-11, 11-7) v Matias Knudsen (No.2 seed and PSA No.47) 🇨🇴
🏴 Sam Todd (No.4 seed and PSA No.43) WON 3-1 (11-3, 7-11, 11-1, 11-8) v Emyr Evans (PSA No.75) 🏴
Men’s final, Saturday
1:45pm: 🏴 Sam Todd (No.4 seed and PSA No.43) v Ryunosuke Tsukue (No.6 seed and PSA No.61) 🇯🇵
