India sails into Squash WC Semi-finals
A day after crushing Hong Kong 4-0 in its opening tie, home team India hardly broke a sweat against South Africa before joining fellow Pool B side Japan in the last-four stage.
CHENNAI: India sailed into the Squash World Cup semi-finals after recording a dominant 4-0 win over South Africa in its second and penultimate Pool B tie at the Express Avenue mall here on Wednesday.
A day after crushing Hong Kong 4-0 in its opening tie, home team India hardly broke a sweat against South Africa before joining fellow Pool B side Japan in the last-four stage.
India (2 wins from 2 ties) and Japan (2 wins from 2 ties) will battle it out for the top spot in the group when they face each other in the final Pool B tie on Thursday.
From Pool A, top seed Egypt (2 wins from 2 ties) and Malaysia (2 wins from 2 ties) have booked a ticket to the semi-finals.
Playing in front of its home crowd, the second-seeded India was in top form and took maximum points from seventh seed South Africa. While veteran Saurav Ghosal notched up a straight-game win, Abhay Singh, Joshna Chinappa and Tanvi Khanna registered identical 3-1 victories.
Saurav was put to test by Dewald van Niekerk early on and looked more comfortable as the match progressed. After emerging victorious, Saurav, who received tremendous support from the locals, said: “I want to be the best, but I want to do it in the right way. For me, doing things in the right way is very important. It helps me sleep better at night and I think that it is the most important thing in life… to be happy and do things the correct way.”
RESULTS:First round: Pool B: India bt South Africa 4-0 (Tanvi Khanna bt Hayley Ward 7-4, 7-2, 3-7, 7-2; Saurav Ghosal bt Dewald van Niekerk 7-6, 7-4, 7-1; Joshna Chinappa bt Lizelle Muller 7-4, 7-3, 3-7, 7-1; Abhay Singh bt Jean-Pierre Brits 7-4, 3-7, 7-6, 7-5).
Japan bt Hong Kong 3-1 (Akari Midorikawa lost to Yee Lam Toby 5-7, 7-3, 4-7, 4-7; Ryunosuke Tsukue bt To Yu Ling 7-1, 7-4, 7-1; Satomi Watanabe bt Heylie Fung 7-2, 7-1, 5-7, 7-2; Tomotaka Endo bt Chung Yat Long 7-4, 7-6, 7-5.
Pool A: Egypt bt Colombia 4-0 (Kenzy Ayman bt Catalina Pelaez 7-5, 7-5, 7-6; Aly Abou Eleinen bt Felipe Tovar 7-5, 7-2, 7-2; Fayrouz Aboelkheir bt Laura Tovar 7-3, 7-4, 5-7, 7-2; Karim El Hammamy bt Alfonso Marroquin 7-5, 7-3, 4-7, 7-4).
Malaysia bt Australia 3-1 (Xin Ying Yee bt Alexandra Haydon 5-7, 7-4, 7-2, 7-4; Darren Pragasam lost to Joseph White 2-7, 6-7, 1-7; Aira Azman bt Jessica Turnbull 7-6, 7-2, 6-7, 7-1; Sai Hung Ong bt Nicholas Calvert 7-6, 7-1, 7-5)
