Hong Kong’s Chan Sin Yuk upset No.7 seed Nada Abbas to reach her first ever PSA World Tour Gold event quarter-final on day two of the SmartCentres Kinetic Florida Open.
The 21-year-old is ranked at No.51 in the world, 34 places below her Egyptian opponent, but defied those rankings to emerge victorious in five games.
After losing a lengthy tie break 16-14 in the first, Chan controlled much of the next two games to take a 2-1 lead, but a change in ball handed the advantage back to Abbas to start the fourth, with the Egyptian racing into a 6-1 lead.
Chan responded in style, though, levelling at 6-6 before giving herself a match ball at 10-9 up.
She was unable to convert and Abbas would send the match into a decider moments later, but undeterred, Chan continued to be aggressive at the front of the court – a tactic that served her well throughout – and ran away with game five to book her spot in the last eight.
“I’m really happy to be through,” she said after victory.
“This was my first time playing against Nada but I’ve always known that she’s a really good player, so before the game I reminded myself many times that I had to take every point seriously, and give no easy points away.
“She did that better than me in the first game so she took the first, and I had a match ball in the fourth and was really gutted not to have converted it, but I’m really happy with how I did in the fifth game.
“I’ve always attacked a lot to the front, but today I was not thinking about winning with the drop shots, but just to play to the space, and that worked well.”
Chan was joined in the quarter-final draw by both the men’s and women’s top seeds, with Nour ElSherbini and Diego Elias recording 3-0 wins in the evening session.
Women’s World No.1 ElSherbini cruised to a 3-0 victory over fellow Egyptian Salma Eltayeb in just 20 minutes, while Elias – who trains at the Kinetic Indoor Racquet Club where this event is being held – saw off the challenge of England’s Nick Wall.
Speaking after her win, ElSherbini said: “I’m happy with the way I played, happy with the first win of the year and looking forward to this week.
“It was actually the first time I’ve ever played Salma. She’s a young, up-and-coming player so you don’t quite know what her game is or how she’s playing, but I know she’s very dangerous and has very good hands, so I had to be ready from the first point.”
Joel Makin and Olivia Weaver were among the other winners on day two, beating Leandro Romiglio and Nicole Bunyan respectively.
Round two of the SmartCentres Kinetic Florida Open concludes from 12:00 (GMT-5) tomorrow, January 11. Watch the action live on SQUASHTV.
Results: SmartCentres Kinetic Florida Open 2024 – Men’s RD2 (top half)
[6] Joel Makin (WAL) bt Leandro Romiglio (ARG) 3-0: 14-12, 11-7, 11-7 (45m)
[4] Mazen Hesham (EGY) bt Abdulla AL-Tamimi (QAT) 3-1: 10-12, 11-3, 11-2, 11-2 (41m)
[1] Diego Elias (PER) bt Nick Wall (ENG) 3-0: 11-5, 11-2, 11-8 (39m)
[5] Tarek Momen (EGY) bt Raphael Kandra (GER) 3-1: 5-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-4 (45m)
Results: SmartCentres Kinetic Florida Open 2024 – Women’s RD2 (top half)
Chan Sin Yuk (HKG) bt [7] Nada Abbas (EGY)3-2: 14-16, 11-9, 11-4, 10-12, 11-4 (57m)
[4] Olivia Weaver (USA) bt Nicole Bunyan (CAN) 3-0: 11-2, 11-5, 11-4 (28m)
[1] Nour ElSherbini (EGY) bt Salma Eltayeb (EGY) 3-0: 11-3, 11-5, 11-4 (20m)
[5] Sivasangari Subramaniam (MAS) bt Lucy Beecroft (ENG) 3-1: 11-6, 11-7, 11-13, 11-8 (42m)
Draw: Men’s RD2 (bottom half) – to be played January 11th
Gregoire Marche (FRA) v [8] Mohamed ElSherbini (EGY)
[3] Mohamed Elshorbagy (ENG) v Nathan Lake (ENG)
Leonel Cardenas (MEX) v [2] Mostafa Asal (EGY)
[7] Miguel Rodriguez (COL) v Sebastien Bonmalais (FRA)
Draw: Women’s RD2 (bottom half) – to be played January 11th
[8] Farida Mohamed (EGY) v Tomato Ho (HKG)
Zeina Mickawy (EGY) v [2] Nouran Gohar (EGY)
[3] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) v Nour Aboulmakarim (EGY)
Kenzy Ayman (EGY) v [6] Amina Orfi (EGY)
