Second seeds India bowed out of the SDAT WSF Squash World Cup following a 0-3 defeat at the hands of fourth seeds Malaysia in Chennai on Friday. (More Sports News)
🎃Malaysia will take on top-seed and defending champions Egypt in the final on Saturday. Egypt blanked Japan 4-0 in the other semifinal.
✤Malaysia took the lead in the first match, with Sai Hung Ong saving a sudden death match ball and then converting in the fifth game to edge out Abhay Singh in a gripping encounter that lasted 37 minutes.
🍸The 18-year old Aira Azman gave Malaysia a 2-0 lead, beating the experienced Joshna Chinappa 7-3, 7-3, 5-7, 7-4 in a 21-minute match.
🌊After going down by two games, Chinappa pulled one game back, but eventually went down 7-4 in the fourth to leave India in trouble.
❀After the reverses suffered by Singh and Chinappa, India needed wins from both Saurav Ghosal and Tanvi Khanna to have any hope of progressing on games won.
💦This task was made even more difficult when World No.134 Darren Pragasam took a shock 1-0 lead against World No.19 Ghosal.
🏅The 36-year-old Indian came storming back in the second game to check Malaysia’s momentum, with Ghosal - wearing a heavy strapping on his right knee - levelling with a 7-2 win.
🧔Despite the win, Ghosal appeared to be struggling, and Pragasam took full advantage to move into the lead with a 7-6 win in game three before breaking Indian hearts with a 7-5 win in the fourth game to send Malaysia into the final.
🌠Results: Semifinals: Egypt beat Japan 4-0 (Karim El Hammamy beat Tomotaka Endo 7-1, 7-6, 7-2; Fayrouz Aboelkheir beat Satomi Watanabe 7-5, 7-2, 7-2; Aly Abou Eleinen beat Ryunosuke Tsukue 6-7, 7-6, 7-5, 7-5; Kenzy Ayman beat Akari Midorikawa 7-3, 7-4).
꧑Malaysia beat India 3-0 (Sai Hung Ong beat Abhay Singh 7-4, 5-7, 1-7, 7-1, 7-6; Aira Azman beat Joshna Chinappa 7-3, 7-3, 5-7, 7-4; Darren Pragasam beat Saurav Ghosal 7-5, 2-7, 7-6, 6-5).
