Tanvi stuns Nadeen to make the last four

Tanvi Khanna and Nadeen Kotb locked in a lively battle in the PSA Challenger squash quarterfinals in New Delhi on Monday.
| Photo Credit: Kamesh Srinivasan

Tanvi Khanna was quite magical as she weaved her way past second seed Nadeen Kotb of Egypt 11-8, 11-5, 11-9 in the women’s quarterfinals of the HCL PSA Challenger squash tournament at the Dhyan Chand National Stadium on Monday.

Tanvi, 28, was calm and confident as she executed crisp winners while wriggling her way out of trouble and raced to victory in 28 minutes.

Looking a shade tired, Tanvi trailed 4-9 in the third game but turned the match around with a touch of nonchalance, winning the next seven points, to seal a semifinal spot against third seed Nour Ramy of Egypt.

The other semifinal will be between top seed Amina Orfi and sixth seed Menna Walid of Egypt. Menna was quite fluent in dismissing the challenge from fourth seed Jelena Dutina of Serbia in 16 minutes.

In the men’s section, top seed Abhay Singh beat Hoony Lee of Korea in straight games to set up a semifinal against Matthew Lai of Hong Kong. 

Two other Indian players, the experienced Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu and Sandeep Ramachandran, bowed out in contrasting ways. Harinder was a little unlucky not to have stretched the entertaining contest against second seed Yassin Elshafei beyond four games.

Third seed Sandeep did not look to have the energy to make a purposeful fight against Tomotaka Endo of Japan.

The results (quarterfinals): Men: Abhay Singh bt Hoony Lee (Kor) 11-6, 11-5, 11-3; Matthew Lai (Hkg) bt Toufik Mekhalfi (Fra) 11-8, 11-5, 11-3; Tomotaka Endo (Jpn) bt Sandeep Ramachandran 11-8, 11-6, 11-5; Yassin Elshafei (Egy) bt Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu 11-7, 11-7, 7-11, 12-10.

Women: Amina Orfi (Egy) bt Malak Fathy (Egy) 11-4, 11-3, 11-6; Menna Walid (Egy) bt Jelena Dutina (Srb) 11-4, 11-4, 11-4; Nour Ramy (Egy) bt Salma El Alfy (Egy) 11-8, 3-11, 11-2, 11-7; Tanvi Khanna bt Nadeen Kotb (Egy) 11-8, 11-5, 11-9.