The Egyptian overcame the number four seed in front of a hone crowd at the Mall of Arabia, winning 10-12, 11-7, 11-5.

Wales' Tesni Evans meanwhile, kept her hopes of qualification alive by beating Joelle King to all but eliminate the New Zealander from the competition.

Eighth seed Evans claimed a surprise three set win over King, ranked fifth, 11-9, 7-11, 11-8, and is now set to face Serme in what looks like a showdown for a spot in the final four on Wednesday (June 12).

In Group A, El Welily has seven points, Serme has four, Evans three and King two.

Third seed Nour El Tayeb got her competition off to a strong start with a three-set victory over sixth ranked Nouran Gohar.

In an all-Egyptian clash, El Tayeb won 11-4, 7-11, 11-8.

In the men's competition, fourth seed Karim Abdel Gawad geared up for his clash with top ranked Ali Farag tomorrow with a straight sets win over Paul Coll.

The Egyptian beat the fifth seed from New Zealand 11-5, 13-11.

Second seed Mohamed El Shorbagy moved himself to the verge of the semi-finals after winning another all-Egyptian clash in three sets, 11-9, 5-11, 11-6 against Tarek Momen.

The other game in Group B saw seventh seed Diego Elias earn his first win of the competition after battling from a set down to surprise Germany's Simon Rösner.

The Peruvian won 5-11, 11-8, 11-9 to leave sixth seed Rösner with defeats from both games in Egypt so far, with a clash against El Shorbagy to come.

El Shorbagy tops Group B with six points, Elias and Momen both have four while Rösner is on two.