Chennai lad Velavan Senthilkumar continued his fine run to reach his maiden PSA World Tour event final at the Parkview Open in Johannesburg.
However, Velavan’s fellow countryman Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu, seeded two, crashed out, losing in the semifinal to Mohammed Elsherbini of Egypt yesterday.
Velavan, who caused a huge upset, beating No.1 seed Aqeel Rehman of Austria 11-3, 11-1, 11-5 in the quarterfinals, got the better of third-seed Mark Fuller of England 12-10, 11-7, 11-9 in 46 minutes to reach the summit clash, according to information received here.
Qualifier Velavan, who won the British Junior Open earlier this year, edged the Englishman in the close opening game before taking control of proceedings.
His compatriot Harinder did not have things his way and went down 8-11, 6-11, 5-11 to Elsherbini.
Joshna goes down fighting
A determined Joshna Chinappa gave her best but second seed Camille Serme of France took in everything before finding the winning path in the fifth game to outdo the Indian in the quarterfinal of the Women's world squash championship here on Wednesday.
The winning scores of 11-6, 10-12, 11-7, 8-11, 11-3 spoke volumes of the 70 minute tussle that saw fortunes changing hands and more importantly the kind of fight Joshna had given to the senior rival. Camille, according to reports, had played several winners and infact had led twice in this engrossing contest but Joshna pegged her rival back with determination. It was only in the deciding fifth game that Camille pulled clear and race away to win. “Never have I seen Joshna playing at such high level,” said the French champion thereafter and the Indian could not have earned a greater compliment.
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