Anahat Singh to face Joshna Chinappa in Indian Open squash final

India’s Anahat Singh and Joshna Chinappa will clash in the women’s final of the Daly College SRFI Indian Open squash in Indore. Anahat beat Hannah Craig, while Joshna stunned Nadien Elhammamy. Egypt’s Youssef Soliman and Mohamad Zakaria advanced to the men’s final

Indore: India’s top women’s squash player Anahat Singh will take on veteran Joshna Chinappa in an all-Indian women’s final of the Daly College SRFI Indian Open, a PSA event, in Indore on Saturday.

In the semifinals on Friday, Delhi teenager and top seed Anahat edged out Irish third seed Hannah Craig 11-4, 10-12, 9-11, 11-6, 11-4, while unseeded veteran Joshna rallied to beat Egyptian second seed Nadien Elhammamy 7-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-7 in the other semifinal of the event jointly organised by the Squash Racquets Federation of India (SRFI).

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In the men’s final, top seed Youssef Soliman of Egypt defeated Yannick Wilhelmi of Switzerland 3-1 (11-6, 8-11, 11-5, 11-2), while third seed Mohamad Zakaria overcame Yahya Elnasasany 3-0 (11-4, 11-6, 15-13) in the other semifinal.

Late on Thursday night, reigning men’s National champion Velavan Senthilkumar lost in the quarterfinals to Zakaria, the Egyptian winning 11-7, 11-7, 11-6.

Anahat, a medallist in the Asian and Commonwealth Games, and Joshna, a former two-time World Doubles Championships gold medallist, had moved into the women’s semifinals with commanding victories. Top seed Anahat breezed past German eighth seed Katerina Tycova 11-5, 11-1, 11-4, while Joshna brushed aside Spanish seventh seed Sofia Mateos 11-4, 11-6, 11-3 in the quarterfinals.

Seventh seed Ramit Tandon lost a close five-game quarterfinal to men’s top seed Soliman, who won 11-5, 9-11, 3-11, 11-3, 11-5.

Earlier, in the women’s section, Anahat, Joshna and Tanvi Khanna booked quarterfinal berths. Anahat defeated Pooja Arthi Raghu 11-2, 11-3, 11-2 in the pre-quarterfinal. Joshna stunned fourth seed Lauren Baltayan of France 6-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-2 after losing the first game. Tanvi Khanna got the better of compatriot Unnati Tripathi 11-1, 11-8, 11-4 in the PSA bronze event, which has a $73,500 prize fund in the men’s competition and $15,000 for the women’s event.