KARACHI, Aug 20: Pakistan’s former national champion Carla Khan lost in the opening rounds of the women’s English Open squash championship in Sheffield to second seed Vicky Botwright of England on Friday.

According to the results of the tournament made available on Saturday, Botwright defeated Pakistan’s Carla despite losing her way in the third game. She won 9-0, 9-1, 5-9, 9-1 to earn a semifinal clash with Irish champion Madeline Perry.

In the men’s event, Sheffield squash star Nick Matthew recovered from two games down - and saved four match balls in the fifth game decider - to dethrone defending champion and favourite Lee Beachill after a nail-biting tie-break in finals of the English Open.

Despite never having beaten his Yorkshire and England team-mate before, Matthew had taken the world No 2 from Pontefract the full distance in their previous two meetings this year.

Matthew will now face another Yorkshireman, former world junior champion James Willstrop, who earlier delighted the crowd by beating qualifier Peter Barker in straight games to become the first player through to Saturday’s semifinals.

After countless confrontations at junior level, this was only thepair’s third meeting as seniors - but the 22-year-old from Pontefract was able to maintain his unbeaten record with an 11-5, 11-10, 11-3 victory in 42 minutes.

Third seed Peter Nicol maintained his recent form to come through the second quarterfinal of the evening in fine style, beating Australia’s Joseph Kneipp 11-10, 11-2, 11-6 in 42 minutes.

His opponent will be Scotland’s sixth seed John White, the 2003 champion, who survived a late five-game match against unseeded Finn Olli Tuominen - saving two match balls in the decider to win 11-10, 7-11, 11-7 8-11, 11-10 in 87 minutes.—PPI