Budapest, Aug 27 (IANS) Eighth seed and World No 54 Velavan Senthilkumar stunned Malaysian world No 18 and top seed Eain Yow Ng 11-2, 11-9, 11-8 in the quarterfinals of the Budapest Open squash, a USD 43,500 PSA Copper event in the Hungarian capital on Thursday.
The Indian No.4 raced through the first game with nine straight points from 2-2, before holding off a late comeback from Ng to double his advantage. From there, he wasn’t to be denied, clinching the third game 11-8 to move through to the last four after 53 minutes of play.
Senthilkumar will face India’s Veer Chotrani for a spot in Friday’s title decider, after the No.3 seed saw off No.6 seed Mohamed ElSherbini in a hard-fought four-game duel.
Meanwhile, third seed Chotrani, ranked 38 in the world, defeated Egyptian sixth seed and world No 51 Mohamed Elsherbini 14-12, 12-14, 11-6, 11-8 in the quarterfinals.
Earlier, Chotrani and Senthilkumar advanced to the quarterfinals with four-game wins each.
World No 38 Chotrani, the third seed, beat Rui Soares of Portugal 13-11,12-14, 11-9, 12-10 in the pre-quarterfinals following a first-round bye in the new season.
World No 54 Senthilkumar, the eighth seed, defeated German fifth seed Raphael Kandra 11-9, 6-11, 11-7, 11-2 in the pre-quarterfinals after putting it past Briton Will Salter 11-9, 11-6, 11-5 in the opening round.
In other matches on Thursday, Hungarian No.1 Balazs Farkas continued his quest for a dream victory on home soil after claiming his second successive seeding scalp, this time defeating Japan’s Ryunosuke Tsukue.
After clinching a closely fought first game 11-9, Farkas only moved from strength to strength, wrapping up the subsequent two games 11-6, 11-2 to reach the semi-finals of the Budapest Open for the first time.
No.4 seed Moustafa Elsirty will be Farkas’ opponent in the semi-finals, after the Egyptian downed Abdulla Al-Tamimi in four games.
Victories for Senthilkumar and Farkas, along with Veer Chotrani and Moustafa Elsirty, mean that all four of Thursday’s semi-finalists will be on the hunt for a maiden World Events title this week.
Results (quarterfinals):
[8] Velavan Senthilkumar (IND) bt [1] Eain Yow Ng (MAS) 3-0: 11-2, 11-9, 11-8 (53m)
[3] Veer Chotrani (IND) bt [6] Mohamed ElSherbini (SLO) 3-1: 14-12, 12-14, 11-6, 11-8 (63m)
[4] Moustafa Elsirty (EGY) bt Abdulla Al-Tamimi (QAT) 3-1: 10-12, 11-5, 11-8, 11-9 (61m)
Balazs Farkas (HUN) bt [7] Ryunosuke Tsukue (JPN) 3-0: 11-9, 11-6, 11-2 (30m)
Draw semifinals:
[8] Velavan Senthilkumar (IND) v [3] Veer Chotrani (IND)
[4] Moustafa Elsirty (EGY) v Balazs Farkas (HUN)
--IANS
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