CHENNAI: Egypt topped Pool A with a creditable win over Malaysia in the Squash World Cup played at the Express Avenue Mall in Chennai on Thursday. In the third tie of the day, No 1 seed Egypt lived up to their top billing with a 3-1 win over No 4 seed Malaysia. Both sides progressed to the semifinals. Egypt’s World No 42 Karim El Hammamy was in his element as he decimated Ong Sai Hung in just 15 minutes.
Malaysia’s Aira Azman gave the No 4 seeds hope with an exciting win in the second match. In the third match, Aly Abou Eleinen put to rest Malaysia’s hope of carrying forward the momentum. In the last match of the tie, Xin Ying Yee took a shock lead against Kenzy Ayman but the latter came back to secure the match.
India vs Malaysia in semis
The India team, comprised of Abhay Singh, Joshna Chinappa, Saurav Ghosal and Tanvi Khanna, confirmed their qualification for the semifinal after Thursday’s 3-1 victory over Japan.
The team got off to a poor start with Abhay losing in three games to Tomotaka Endo.
Fortunately for India, World No 10 Joshna did an incredible rescue act in the second match against Satomi Watanabe. Saurav earned a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Ryunosuke Tsukue followed by Tanvi Khanna’s 3-0 win over Akari Midorikawa.
Results: Pool A: Australia bt Colombia 4-0, Egypt bt Malaysia 3-1. Pool B: South Africa bt Hong Kong 3-1, India bt Japan 3-1.