There is guaranteed to be a local finalist in the showpiece event of
the Malaysian Squash Tour I, PSA M5 tournament after Mohd Syafiq
Kamal and Eain Yow Ng secured semi-final berths thanks to victories
over Tsun Hei Yuen and Chris Lo, respectively.
Kamal, who defeated Gurshan Singh in the opening round, came up with
a magnificent display against Hong Kong’s Yuen to dominate the ’T’
and send his opponent into all four corners of the court with a
barrage of ferocious drives and drops.
The 19-year-old powered to an 11-9, 11-7, 11-6 victory to reach the
semi-final stage for the fourth time in his career.
His opponent there, Ng, was in splendid form to defeat Lo, who
caused the biggest shock of the tournament in day one of the main
draw action, toppling number one seed and title favourite Lance
Beddoes in a climactic five-game encounter. However, he was unable
to back that up with a similar display against Ng and fell to a
straight games defeat to put an end to only his second PSA World
Tour main draw campaign.
Elsewhere, Vikram Malhotra and Ben Grindrod will go up against each
other for a place in the final after recording respective wins
against second seed Muhd Asyraf Azan and South Korea’s Ko Youngjo.
Number one seed Vanessa Chu moved through to the semi-final of the
Women’s Malaysian Squash Tour I, PSA W5 tournament with a
comfortable 18-minute win over Aifa Azman.
Chu, the World No.51, was the heavy favourite for the match, but
came up against a player who had upset eighth seed Noor Shadira on
home soil in the previous round after coming through qualifying.
However, Chu made short work of her opponent and controlled
proceedings to surge to an 11-7, 11-6, 11-7 victory and secure her
place in the last four as she stays in with a chance of making it a
hat-trick of Malaysian Tour titles having won two last year.
Sivasangari Subramaniam will stand in her way after the Malaysian
number three seed swept to a straightforward triumph against Chan
Yiwen.
Aika Azman, meanwhile, is in with a chance of reaching a first PSA
World Tour final after she upset second seed Carmen Lee and she will
line up against Ho Tze Lok, the 20-year-old from Hong Kong who
dispatched Zoe Foo Yuk Han.
