World No.5 Sivasangari Subramaniam is guaranteed a career-high ranking of World No.4 in Monday\u2019s updated PSA World Rankings after the Malaysian produced an impressive comeback, recovering from two games down to defeat World No.6 Fayrouz Aboelkheir at the Egyptian Open squash championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sivasangari\u2019s 9-11, 4-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7 victory sees the 27-year-old advance to her first-ever Diamond-level semi-final. T<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was an entertaining spectacle between Fayrouz Aboelkheir and Sivasangari Subramaniam in the opening stages of the match, with both players happy to attack at will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The crucial moments came at 9-9, though, where Sivasangari clipped back-to-back tins to gift her opponent a pivotal one-game lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From strength to strength Aboelkheir moved, wrapping up a one-sided second game to the loss of just four points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The young Egyptian is finding particular joy down the backhand wing, hitting accurately and opening up opportunities from which to attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, errors are flowing with regularity from the racket of Sivasangari, who needed to drastically improve her levels if she was to draw her way back into this match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite still not playing her very-best squash, No.4 seed Sivasangari clinched the third and got herself back. it was a far more accurate display of hitting from the Malaysian, who worked Aboelkheir into the front two corners with more regularity through the use of her deceptive boast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some gutsy squash was con display from Sivasangari, as she battled back from 6-4 down to take the fourth game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The error count began to creep up for Aboelkheir, with the young Egyptian hitting three regulation backhand drops into the tin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Malaysian was hanging on by a thread after a poor opening to the match, but all credit to the No.4 seed. She refused to go away, battled hard, and advanced to the semi-finals after taking the fourth game 11-7 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sivasangari will now play defending champiuon Hania El Hammamy in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m definitely happy with how I fought today. I wasn\u2019t quite feeling it in the first two games. The first was close, but then in the second it was weird, I couldn\u2019t even hit the ball. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI just told myself to just keep fighting through. Fayrouz is such a dangerous player, very smart on court. But I know I have the physicality to get stuck in, play as long as I want on this court, and I\u2019m happy with how I dealt with it. Not my best match, but I\u2019m happy to get through. You just have to fight when you\u2019re not playing your best, and that\u2019s what I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cObviously we hope Olivia can get back to tour soon. With me personally though, I\u2019m proud with how I\u2019m going. I tried to fight through today, win these kind of matches, to get up the rankings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMentally I\u2019m just trying to stay strong. I think Greg is building that side of my character,\u201d said Sivasangari.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
El Hammamy and Mostafa Asal continued their title defences at the Egyptian Open, booking their places in the semi-finals following respective wins over Satomi Watanabe and Mohamad Zakaria in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
World No.2 El Hammamy was forced to dig deep to secure her spot in the last four, fighting back from 2-1 down to defeat World No.7 Watanabe in a gruelling five-game encounter, eventually prevailing by a 9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 11-5 scoreline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a fluctuating contest, the two-time champion struggled to find consistency at times, but importantly raised her level when it mattered most. As the match entered a tough fifth game, it was El Hammamy who pulled away to keep her title defence on track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing to panic about today,\u201d El Hammamy said after the match. \u201cI\u2019m confident, I know the patches I played well today, and it\u2019s a matter of just trying to improve the focus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI used to be too stressed out about my performances at the beginning of the tournament, but then as tournaments go on, I found myself playing the best squash I have ever played towards the end of tournaments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cObviously, it\u2019s very risky to be playing with this mindset, but I have learnt that I shouldn\u2019t be stressing at all. It gets me really in the right mindset for the big moments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, in the men\u2019s draw, reigning World Champion Asal delivered a statement performance to overcome World Junior Champion Mohamad Zakaria in a high-quality three-game duel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asal set out his stall in a mammoth 11-9, 37-minute first-game win, before taking full control of the match, stepping up his levels over the following two games to complete an 11-9, 11-2, 11-5 victory \u2013 a result highly reminiscent of their duel at this year\u2019s Tournament of Champions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe first game was a bit of mind games,\u201d Asal said after the match. \u201cHe\u2019s trying to show me that he\u2019s strong. I was also trying to give him a little bit as well, you know, that I\u2019m stronger. It\u2019s a new challenge, a new test. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSomeone who\u2019s 19, they\u2019re coming at you, just like what Ali Farag and the other boys would have felt when I was coming through. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018It was a fun challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Standing between Asal and a third consecutive Egyptian Open final is World No.4 Karim Gawad, who delivered a composed performance to defeat World No.9 Marwan ElShorbagy in three games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the straight-games scoreline, the match was decided by fine margins, with the 2019 Egyptian Open champion edging two closely fought tie-breaks before sealing victory after 43 minutes of play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
[1] Mostafa Asal (EGY) bt [6] Mohamad Zakaria (EGY) 3-0: 11-9, 11-2, 11-5 (62m)
[4] Karim Gawad (EGY) bt [8] Marwan ElShorbagy (ENG) 3-0: 15-13, 13-11, 11-7 (43m)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[1] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) bt [5] Satomi Watanabe (JPN) 3-2: 9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 11-5 (85m)
[4] Sivasangari Subramaniam (MAS) bt [7] Fayrouz Aboelkheir (EGY) 3-2: 9-11, 4-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7 (63m)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
World No.5 Sivasangari Subramaniam is guaranteed a career-high ranking of World No.4 in Monday\u2019s updated PSA World Rankings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-16650","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\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\n\t\t