KARACHI: The US $71,000 Pakistan Open Squash Championship reached its climax after the top two men’s and women’s seeds set up title clashes as expected at the DA Creek Club’s Asif Nawaz Squash Complex on Saturday.

Contrary to the quarter-finals, the victories, with one exception, were rather easier for the top seeds in the semi-finals on the penultimate day.

Second seed Diego Elias of Peru is the only non-Egyptian as the African nation dominates the quartet of the two finals. While the Sunday’s women’s final will be an all-Egyptian affair between top seed Yathreb Adel and second seed Nadine Shahin, top seed Karim Abdel Gawad will be under spotlight to live up to his reputation.

Former world No 1 Gawad, who is presently ranked ninth in the world, had prevailed over fourth seed Malaysian Nafiizwan Adnan straight 11-8, 11-5, 11-7 in just 25-minutes.

Gawad, 27, who got a first round bye, had overcome Pakistan’s Tayyab Aslam in four games in 37-minutes in the second round and conjured up straight victory over fellow Egyptian Mazen Gamal in 29-minutes.

When he takes on Diego on Sunday, the former world No 1 had an opportunity to end title drought that has eluded him in the last 13 PSA events since January.

Diego, who was among the top 10 at the start of year and on the heels of Gawad at world No 11, sent fifth seed Mexican Arturo Salazar packing 11-9, 11-4, 11-1 in a span of 24-minutes.

The Yathreb Adel and Zeina Mickawy semi-final was the only match of the day that was stretched to four games and lasted over half-an-hour, 35-minutes to be precise.

Yathreb, who is world No 24 and runner-up of the under-23 British Open this year, justified her seeding chalking up 11-8, 5-11, 11-9, 11-7 victory over third seed Zeina.

The top seed had defeated seventh seed Rachel Arnold of Malaysia 12-10, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9 in agonising 34-minutes the other day.

Second seed Nadine took 20-minutes to emerge 11-8, 11-7, 11-7 victorious over Malaysian Subramaniam in the other semi-final.

Results:

Men’s semi-finals:

Karim Abdel Gawad (Egypt) bt Nafiizwan Adnan (Malaysia) 11-8, 11-5, 11-7; Diego Elias (Peru) bt Arturo Salazar (Mexico) 11-9, 11-4, 11-1.

Women’s semi-finals:

Yathreb Adel (Egypt) bt Zeina Mickawy (Egypt) 11-8, 5-11, 11-9, 11-7; Nadine Shahin (Egypt) bt Sivasangari Subramaniam (Malaysia) 11-8, 11-7, 11-7.

Sunday’s fixtures:

Women’s final:

Yathreb Adel (Egypt) vs Nadine Shahin (Egypt) at 3pm.

Men’s final:

Karim Abdel Gawad (Egypt) vs Diego Elias (PER) at 4pm.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2018