Sivasangari to draw on Asiad experience as she plots Joey’s downfall

KUALA LUMPUR: Women’s squash player S. Sivasangari is eyeing a repeat of her Asian Games performance.

The 20-year-old, who won a silver medal in Indonesia last year, faces a tough match against third seed Joey Chan of Hong Kong in the quarter-finals of the Asian Individual Squash Championships at the National Squash Centre in Bukit Jalil here today.

But having defeated Joey’s compatriot and world No. 11 Annie Au in the quarter-finals at the Asiad, Sivasangari believes she can pull off another stunner against the world No. 19.

The Malaysian set-up the quarter-final clash after defeating junior teammate Aifa Azman 6-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-7.

“Joey is a very good player but the pressure is on her as she is ranked higher than me. I just want to go out there and push myself and see what I can do,” said Sivasangari who returned from her studies in Cornell University last week.

“But I still have to polish up certain parts of my game because my shots were going everywhere against Aifa. I have to be more accurate against Joey but playing on the glass court, hopefully, it will be different.

“Maybe I’m still suffering from jet lag but that’s not an excuse because there will be bad days and I have to push through them.”

Joining Sivasangari in the last eight is Low Wee Wern who will take on Japan’s Satomi Watanabe.

In the men’s event, Ivan Yuen showed grit when he came back from a set down to overcome Japan’s Tomotaka Endo 10-12, 11-5, 11-9, 11-0.

“I didn’t get a good start today but I just tried to stay positive and do whatever I need to do to win,” said Ivan.

Ivan’s next match is against fourth seed and world No. 27 Leo Au of Hong Kong for a place in the quarter-final.