Anahat Singh (Photo PSA)
Teenage star Anahat Singh fought back from 2-0 down to beat No.2 seed Sana Ibrahim and reach the Squash on Fire Open semi-finals, after men’s second seed Leonel Cardenas had also been knocked out earlier in the day.
17-year-old Singh has already made a name for herself on the PSA Tour this season, most notably reaching the semi-finals of the Silver-level Canadian Women’s Open in October, climbing up inside the world’s top 30 soon afterwards.
She is now one win away from her biggest career final, but she had to do things the hard way on quarter-finals day in Washington D.C., falling two games behind to Ibrahim in the day’s penultimate match.
But with a full crowd watching on – a crowd which included her coach Greg Gaultier and plenty of vocal support for her – Singh clawed her way back into the contest, overturning a 6-5 deficit in both the third and fourth games.
Key to her turnaround was undoubtedly her composure at crucial moments, an impressive trait for a player so young, and she continued to play with her fluid, attacking style throughout.
At 6-7 down in the fifth, she had little room for error, but errors were not on her radar, reeling off the next five points on the bounce to close out the comeback win, turning to the crowd and letting out a huge roar of emotion.
She will now face the in-form Sabrina Sobhy for a place in the final, after the American ended the impressive run of the unseeded Jana Swaify with a 3-0 win.
Men’s No.1 seed Mohamed Elshorbagy and third seed Fares Dessouky also progressed, beating Mohamed Elsherbini and Raphael Kandra respectively, but there will be no place in the final four for Mexico’s Cardenas, who went down in straight games to Karim El Hammamy.
Less than 24 hours earlier and little more than 200 miles away, women’s World No.1 Hania El Hammamy claimed glory at the Sprott Tournament of Champions presented by Crowd Street, but today it was her older brother Karim’s turn to steal the limelight here in Washington D.C.
The 30-year-old had impressively beaten No.5 seed Kareem El Torkey in round two, and was looking to reach a first ever Bronze-level semi-final.
Standing in his way was Mexico’s Cardenas, and the pair proceeded to adopt the same patient approach to play, with neither taking too many risks towards the front of the court.
The result of that was a 26-minute first game, which saw the Egyptian fight back from 9-7 down to clinch it 11-9, and there was little change in game two.
Once again, the two players played cautiously throughout, going all the way to a tiebreak after another 25 minutes, but the end result was the same, with El Hammamy moving two games clear.
The match time was approaching the hour mark as the players returned to court for game three, setting up the potential of a record-breaking duration should Cardenas fight back and take the match to five.
But instead, El Hammamy continued to get stronger, staying patient while also moving his opponent around on his way to a 10-6 lead.
The first two match balls came and went but a third would not, as the patient approach was disregarded in favour of a serve return slammed into the nick, ending proceedings in style.
El Hammamy’s semi-final final opponent will be sixth seed Declan James, who was pushed hard by India’s Veer Chotrani, needing more than an hour to record a 3-1 win.
Earlier in the day, Georgina Kennedy and Melissa Alves both recorded wins to set up a semi-final meeting in the women’s draw, beating Egyptian duo Hana Moataz and Nadien Elhammamy respectively.
Results: Women’s Quarter-Finals
[3] Melissa Alves (FRA) bt. Nadien Elhammamy (EGY) 3-0: 11-6, 12-10, 11-2 (31m)
[1] Georgina Kennedy (ENG) bt. [6] Hana Moataz (EGY) 3-1: 11-9, 11-6, 7-11, 11-5 (39m)
Sabrina Sobhy (USA) bt. Jana Swaify (EGY) 3-0: 13-11, 11-5, 11-6 (29m)
[7] Anahat Singh (IND) bt. [2] Sana Ibrahim (EGY)3-2: 8-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7 (71m)
Results: Men’s Quarter-Finals
[6] Declan James (ENG) bt. Veer Chotrani (IND) 3-1: 8-11, 11-6, 14-12, 11-9 (66m)
Karim El Hammamy (EGY) bt. [2] Leonel Cardenas (MEX) 3-0: 11-9, 12-10, 11-8 (67m)
[1] Mohamed ElShorbagy (ENG) bt. [8] Mohamed ElSherbini (EGY) 3-0: 11-7, 11-8, 11-3 (38m)
[3] Fares Dessouky (EGY) bt. [7] Raphael Kandra (GER) 3-0: 11-5, 11-3, 11-0 (22m)
