Hong Kong and India players end Malaysians’ hopes
KUALA LUMPUR: None of Malaysia’s three semi-finalists managed to clear their hurdles at the Asian Individual Championships.
National squash player Low Wee Wern, who showed grit to win the second set, could not stage a fightback as she went down 6-11, 13-11, 11-13, 4-11 to No. 11 Annie Au of Hong Kong.
Youngsters Ng Eain Yow and S. Sivasangari, who created upsets in the last eight, failed to repeat the feat at the National Squash Centre in Bukit Jalil here yesterday.
Eain Yow struggled to keep up with the speedy world No. 10 and top seed Saurav Ghosal of India in a 2-11, 6-11, 4-11 defeat while India’s world No. 15 Joshna Chinappa showed S. Sivasangari the door in the 11-7, 12-10, 11-3 win.
It was however a much better show from Wee Wern who suffered a straight sets loss to Annie in the Macau Open final last month.
“It’s always hard to lose especially at home. Definitely disappointed with the result but performance wise I played quite well,” said the 28-year-old.
“I think I push her more this time. The third game was make-or-break for us and unfortunately it went her way.”
Wee Wern, who is a former world No. 5, had only returned in July last year after a serious knee injury that saw her sidelined for 20 months.
“This is only my third match against a top 10 player since my comeback. I need more of these matches to get used to the atmosphere and speed of the top 10 all over again.
“I think I’m definitely not in the top 10 just yet. There’s still work to be done and I’m happy with how far I’ve come since I started playing again.”
For Eain Yow, he was still struggling with the loss.
“To be honest I still don’t know what exactly happened. Saurav showed why he is the top 10 in the world,” said Eain Yow.
“On days like this when he is playing this well there’s nothing we players can do.”
“He totally controlled the match, I had no chance to get into the game.”
Sivasangari rued what could have been against Chinappa.
“If I had taken the second set things would have been different. Joshna played really well, there wasn’t any accuracy in my shots and I made too many mistakes,” said Sivasangari.
“I tried to change things but it’s just one of those days when I couldn’t bring out my best.”