Hosts India and top seeds Hong Kong, China, will compete for the Squash World Cup title after India blew away defending champions Egypt while Hong Kong, China, were saved by a valiant rescue from Alex Lau and Ka Yi Lee as the pre-tournament favourites recovered from 0-2 down against Japan in Express Avenue Mall in Chennai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India came into their tie tonight with unfinished business after falling agonisingly short in 2023, also in Chennai, when they exited in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This time, though, they made no mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India, whose four-player team includes three Chennai locals, made an ideal start to the tie against Egypt through Velavan Senthilkumar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indian National Champion Senthilkumar looked a cut above his opponent Ibrahim Elkabbani, dominating court and opponent to win 3-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Match two was an epic between Anahat Singh and Nour Heikal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Singh, 17, struggled against Heikal’s power and attacking boasts in game one, with the Egyptian taking the opener via tie break 7-6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Singh recovered impeccably, though, showing grit and flair in equal measure as she charged back in a thrilling five game win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This put India in a commanding position, with India Men’s No.1 Abhay Singh coming in in the third match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His opponent, rising teen star Adam Hawal, dug in fiercely and briefly threatened to spoil India’s party, before Singh got his team over the line 7-5, 6-7, 7-5, 7-6 to the delight of the crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India National Coach Harinder Pal Sandhu said: “This was a very big win for us. We were seeded higher, but in a World Cup when you’re playing for your country, everyone is going to come in to challenge you!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hong Kong, China, meanwhile, edged past Japan – who had downed No.3 seeds Malaysia in the quarter-finals – on count-back as an inspired performance from Lau and a calm showing from Lee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Japan rocked the top seeds with a one-two punch at the beginning of the tie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
World No.114 Tomotaka Endo, whose solitary game win in a 3-1 loss against Mohammad Syafiq Kamal in the last match of their tie yesterday sent Japan through, stunned World No.54 Henry Leung – who has struggled in Chennai – in today’s opener by coming back from two games down to win 3-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, World No.6 Satomi Watanabe took down Tomato Ho without dropping a game to put Japan two matches ahead with a four-game cushion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fortunately for Hong Kong, China, Lau – who has grown into the tournament – put in his finest performance of the week so far. The 29-year-old World No.42 covered every inch of the court as he hounded World No.56 Ryunosuke Tsukue, recording a dominant 7-2, 7-3, 7-5 win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That Lau win swung the odds back in Hong Kong, China’s, favour, with the fourth match pitting his teammate, World No.37 Ka Yi Lee, against World No.103 Akari Midorikawa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A 3-0 or 3-1 win for Lee would hand her side the win, while a tight 3-2 victory would see the tie decided on points count-back. Midorikawa, meanwhile, would clinch the tie for Japan with a shock win against the player ranked 66 places above her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fiery Japan No.2, whose two game wins in a 3-2 defeat to World No.33 Aifa Azman yesterday set Japan on the way to a count-back victory, briefly threatened to pull off a miracle when she levelled at 1-1 after Lee had taken game one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lee, however, weathered the storm and began to control the court, camping on ‘the T’ and dragging Midorikawa to the front and back as she clinched the match with ultimately comfortable 7-3, 7-2 wins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Afterwards, Lee said: “I can’t say it is only my effort. My whole team gave a good effort, especially Lau winning 3-0, it took away a lot of pressure from me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lau added: “I am really happy with my performance today, only two mistakes from me is incredible!
I hung in there and the pressure was huge; I just didn’t want to give up on any points!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hong Kong, China 2-2 Japan – Hong Kong, China, win on Games Count-Back<\/strong>: Henry Leung lost to Tomotaka Endo 2-3: 7-5, 4-7, 7-2, 5-7, 5-7 (42m); Tomato Ho lost to Satomi Watanabe 0-3: 4-7, 4-7, 5-7 (23m); Alex Lau bt Ryunosuke Tsukue 3-0: 7-2, 7-3, 7-5 (33m); Ka Yi Lee bt Akari Midorikawa 3-1: 7-3 4-7 7-3 7-2 (23m)<\/p>\n\n\n\n India 3-0 Egypt<\/strong>: Velavan Senthilkumar bt Ibrahim Elkabbani 3-0: 7-1, 7-3, 7-6 (26m); Anahat Singh bt Nour Heikal 3-2: 6-7, 7-5, 7-3, 3-7, 7-3 (35m); Abhay Singh bt Adam Hawal 3-1: 7-5, 6-7, 7-5, 7-6 (55m); Joshna Chinappa m\/w Nardine Garas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hosts India and top seeds Hong Kong, China, will compete for the Squash World Cup title after India<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7169,"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-7168","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