Squash: Anahat's dream run at Canadian Women's Open ends in SF

Toronto, Oct 30 (IANS) India's rising star Anahat Singh’s dream run at the Canadian Women’s Open, a PSA Silver event, ended with a 3-0 defeat to England No.1 Georgina Kennedy in the semi-final.

Anahat, the World No.43, claimed two, big victories on her way to the semi-finals after defeating World No.20 Melissa Alves and defending champion and World No.7 Tinne Gilis.

However, the semi-final clash with Kennedy proved to be a step too far for the Indian teenager, as the World No.10 did an excellent job of neutralising the 17-year-old to win 11-5, 11-8, 12-10 in 30 minutes to secure her spot in the final decider.

“She’s (Anahat Singh) had a great tournament this week and I said to my coach back home that she’s such a natural squash player, you can’t coach that deceptive swing that she has and how she moves the ball around. She was maybe a little tired from the week which is to be expected,” Kennedy said.

“But I felt in control of that match throughout it all, but I’m not happy with how I ended it. I tried to end it too early and nearly got found out but I’m just glad I could get through.

“I was trying to rush her as much as possible, I didn’t want to give her time on the ball and time for her to use her deceptive swing so I just tried to hurry her and I felt like my short stuff was working well In the beginning but maybe I did a little too much at the end," she added.

The Delhi teenager's dream run included her first victory over a top 20 PSA World Rankings player by defeating Alves 12-10, 12-10, 8-11, 11-2 to secure a quarter-final berth in a Silver-level event for the first time.

She maintained her strong performance, advancing to the semi-finals of the USD 96,250 PSA Silver event with a commanding straight-game victory over world No. 7 Tinne Gilis.

--IANS

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