Malaysia\u2019s Rachel Arnold and Pakistan\u2019s Noor Zaman claimed seeding upsets to earn places in the quarter finals of the Optasia Squash Championships, .\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rachel took on local favourite and No.7 seed Jamsine Hutton in the first match of the evening session last night at the famous Wimbledon Club, grasping the opportunity to reach a second Gold quarter final with both hands with a 11-9, 11-8, 12-10 win. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rachel stormed out of the gates in the opening game, establishing a 6-1 lead with Hutton not yet at the races. Rachel ran through to 10-4 and despite a comeback from Hutton to reach 9-10, the Malaysian converted.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both players looked to be slightly nervous taking the ball in short with errors coming from both rackets. Arnold turned to her trusted forehand boast to constantly drag Hutton into the front left corner, and if the shot wasn\u2019t an outright winner, the follow-up was. She doubled her lead, winning 11-8. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hutton\u2019s accuracy and intensity improved drastically in game three. She started to move Arnold away from the middle and earned herself a 7-4 lead. However, errors crept into Hutton\u2019s game once again, which gave both points and confidence to Arnold. The Malaysian took the game to a tiebreak and sealed the win by a 12-10 scoreline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI came into it trying to be confident and I wanted to try and take it point by point and I think that really helped me today. I\u2019m disappointed that I let her back in at the end of each game but overall I\u2019m happy to be able to get through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJaz is such a good player and she\u2019s been playing really well lately and she was fighting hard again today but I think I played well in the front corners and just happy to be through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only other upset of the day came from Pakistan\u2019s Noor Zaman, who also needed 32 minutes to move past Mexico\u2019s Leonel Cardenas 11-7, 11-5, 11-7. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The highly skilled Zaman was in top form from the outset, moving the ball into the front corners with ease and testing the movement of the Mexican at any opportunity. Cardenas looked as though he couldn\u2019t read any of the attacking shots of the Pakistani, as Zaman ran through to win 11-7 and take the lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zaman\u2019s incredible shot-making continued in game two. The 21-year-old showed no fear as he eyed a second Gold event quarer final and after just 21 minutes, had doubled his lead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite a stronger showing from Cardenas in the third game, he still looked to be struggling to read Zaman and utilise his own attacking strengths. Cardenas held a narrow lead but once again, Zaman was able to rattle off the points to move ahead on the scoreboard. Zaman won 11-7 to end day two and complete the quarter-final line-ups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elsewhere on day two, women\u2019s top seed Hania El Hammamy got her title defence off to a strong start by beating England\u2019s Torrie Malik in straight games. Former World Champions Diego Elias and Karim Gawad advanced to the last eight, whilst Youssef Ibrahim marked his return to action with a win over compatriot Mohamed Abouelghar. Satomi Watanabe and Amanda Sobhy will also face each other in the quarter finals after comfortable wins over Melissa Alves and Kenzy Ayman, respectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
ROUND TWO RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Men\u2019s: <\/strong>[3] Diego Elias (PER) bt Jonah Bryant (ENG) 3-0: 13-11, 2-0 ret. (30m); Noor Zaman (PAK) bt [8] Leonel Cardenas (MEX) 3-0: 11-7, 11-5, 11-7 (32m); [5] Youssef Ibrahim (EGY) bt Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY) 3-2: 7-11, 18-16, 11-4, 7-11, 4-2 ret. (70m); [2] Karim Gawad (EGY) bt Gregoire Marche (FRA) 3-0: 12-10, 11-9, 11-8 (38m)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women\u2019s: <\/strong>[1] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) bt Torrie Malik (ENG) 3-0: 12-10, 11-2, 11-5 (35m); Rachel Arnold (MAS) bt [7] Jasmine Hutton (ENG) 3-0: 11-9, 11-8, 12-10 (35m); [5] Amanda Sobhy (USA) bt Kenzy Ayman (EGY) 3-1: 11-7, 3-11, 11-4, 11-3 (38m); [3] Satomi Watanabe (JPN) bt Melissa Alves (FRA) 3-0: 11-8, 11-3, 11-8 (34m)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Malaysia\u2019s Rachel Arnold and Pakistan\u2019s Noor Zaman claimed seeding upsets to earn places in the quarter finals of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-10897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-squash"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t