In the semifinals on Friday, Delhi teenager and top seed Anahat edged out Irish third seed Hannah Craig 11-4, 10-12, 9-11, 11-6, 11-4, while unseeded veteran Joshna rallied to beat Egyptian second seed Nadien Elhammamy 7-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-7 in the other semifinal of the event being jointly organised by Squash Racquets Federation of India (SRFI).<\/p>\r\n\r\n
In the men's final, top seed Youssef Soliman of Egypt defeated Yannick Wilhelmi of Switzerland 3-1 (11-6, 8-11, 11-5, 11-2 while third seed Mohamad Zakaria defeated Yahya Elnasasany 3-0 (11-4, 11-6, 15-13) in the other semifinal.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Late on Thursday night, reigning men\u2019s National champion Velavan Senthilkumar lost in the quarterfinals to third seed Mohamad Zakaria, the Egyptian winning 11-7, 11-7, 11-6.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Anahat, a medallist in the Asian and Commonwealth Games, and Joshna, a former two-time World Doubles Championships gold medallist, had moved into the women\u2019s semifinals with commanding victories. Top seed Anahat breezed past German eighth seed Katerina Tycova 11-5, 11-1, 11-4, while Joshna brushed aside Spanish seventh seed Sofia Mateos 11-4, 11-6, 11-3 in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Late on Thursday night, reigning men\u2019s National champion Velavan Senthilkumar lost in the quarterfinals to third seed Mohamad Zakaria, the Egyptian winning 11-7, 11-7, 11-6.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Earlier, in the women\u2019s section, Anahat, Joshna, and Tanvi Khanna booked quarterfinal berths in the event. Anahat defeated Pooja Arthi Raghu 11-2, 11-3, 11-2 in the pre-quarterfinal. Joshna Chinappa stunned the fourth-seeded Lauren Baltayan of France 6-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-2 after losing the first game. Tanvi Khanna got the better of compatriot Unnati Tripathi 11-1, 11-8, 11-4 in the Professional Squash Association (PSA) bronze event, which has a $73,500 prize fund in the men's competition and $15,000 for the women's event.<\/p>\r\n\r\n