Washington, Jan 31 (IANS) Teenage star Anahat Singh fought back from 2-0 down to beat No. 2 seed Sana Ibrahim and reach the Squash on Fire Open semifinals on Saturday.
The Indian world No. 31 and seventh seed fought her way back into the contest, overturning a 6-5 deficit in both the third and fourth games, to edge out the Egyptian world No. 17 8-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7 in the PSA Bronze-level event.
Anahat, 17, has already made a name for herself on the PSA Tour this season, most notably reaching the semi-finals of the Silver-level Canadian Women’s Open in October, climbing up inside the world’s top 30 soon afterwards.
She is now one win away from her biggest career final, but she had to do things the hard way on quarter-finals day in Washington D.C., falling two games behind to Ibrahim in the day’s penultimate match.
But with a full crowd watching on – a crowd which included her coach Greg Gaultier and plenty of vocal support for her – Singh clawed her way back into the contest, overturning a 6-5 deficit in both the third and fourth games.
Key to her turnaround was undoubtedly her composure at crucial moments, an impressive trait for a player so young, and she continued to play with her fluid, attacking style throughout.
At 6-7 down in the fifth, she had little room for error, but errors were not on her radar, reeling off the next five points on the bounce to close out the comeback win, turning to the crowd and letting out a huge roar of emotion.
She will now face the in-form Sabrina Sobhy for a place in the final, after the American ended the impressive run of the unseeded Jana Swaify with a 3-0 win.
Meanwhile, Veer Chotrani lost 8-11, 11-6, 14-12, 11-9 to the sixth seed from England Declan James in the men’s quarterfinal.
–IANS
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