Rachel marches to final but it’s over for Sivasangari, Eain Yow at Ace Squash Cup

SEREMBAN: Asian Games champions Ng Eain Yow and S. Sivasangari bowed out in the semi-finals of the Ace Malaysia Squash Cup but Rachel Arnold kept the flag flying high by reaching the final.

The world No. 20 Eain Yow’s campaign came to disappointing end in the bronze-level Professional Squash Association (PSA) tournament after he went down 8-11, 10-12, 5-11 to Egypt’s No. 6 Karim Abdel Gawad in the last four at the S2 Sports Complex in Seremban yesterday.

Eain Yow was trailing in the beginning of every set and made efforts to stage a comeback, but Gawad held the ground firmly to wrap up the game.

He struggled to execute his game strategy as Gawad consistently applied pressure throughout the game.

“I was a bit off today and didn’t play my best squash…all credits to Karem, he played well today (yesterday)” said the 25-year-old Eain Yow, who won men’s singles gold and men’s team bronze in the Hangzhou Asian Games in October.

“I don’t think he allowed me to play my game…I had to come from behind in every set and it was quite taxing mentally.

“He made me feel really uncomfortable on court, but again, he is one of the bests players on tour now, and it was a tough match and a good wake-up call for me in some sense after having success in the past few weeks.”

Eain Yow also lauded Gawad’s skills on the court.

“There is a lot of things that is quite hard for me to see from outside, such as the way he holds his shots and the way he hides what he is going to hit,” said Eain Yow.

“He is so skillful and one of the best at doing that…he can hit any shot he wants from any position.

“For me, personally, I’m one of the best movers on tour but he made me run a lot and forced me to be under pressure.”

Eain Yow will now shift his focus to the Singapore Open starting next Tuesday and will open his campaign against world No. 51 Balazs Farkas of Hungary.

It was also over for Asiad winner Sivasangari when she went down 12-10, 3-11, 9-11, 6-11 to Nour El Tayeb of Egypt.

Tayeb will face Rachel in the final today.