Senthilkumar stuns world No 18 Eain Yow Ng in Budapest squash quarters

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

bsk/