Gawad, seeded eighth at the tournament inside New York's Grand Central Terminal, recorded a comfortable 11-4, 11-7, 11-5 victory to move into the last four.

The Egyptian, winner of the corresponding event in 2016, nearly suffered a shock exit when he fell two games behind to world number 23 Joel Makin in the early rounds but returned to form in style to overcome Rösner, the first German player to win a major PSA World Tour event.

"Simon beat me the last two times last season, and he is now the world number three,” Gawad said.

“He has improved a lot, and he was always top 10 but now he is even better than he used to be. 

"He is the defending champion here so it was a very tough match, of course.

“I had to be very strong mentally in order to win against someone like Simon, especially a 3-0 win and I had to focus 100 per cent today."

In the other men's quarter-final, world number one and top seed Mohamed Elshorbagy battled to a five-game win over Peruvian Diego Elias.

The Egyptian was made to work hard for his place in the semi-finals as he claimed a 9-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 11-5 victory to set up a meeting with Gawad.

In the women's draw, the American duo of Amanda Sobhy and Olivia Blatchford Clyne were beaten by the Egyptian pair of Nour El Tayeb and Nour El Sherbini respectively.

El Tayeb beat Sobhy 6-11, 12-10, 1-11, 11-5, 11-7, while El Sherbini dispatched Clyne 11-5, 11-5, 11-3.

Elsewhere, world number one Raneem El Welily got the better of India's Joshna Chinappa 6-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-8.

The tournament continues tomorrow.