Joelle King of New
Zealand plays a backhand shot during her win against Joshna Chinappa in
the final of the women’s HKFC PSA International 25 at the HKFC on
Saturday May 28, 2016. (Bill Cox/Epoch Times)
HONG KONG—The 5th HKFC PSA International 25 squash
competition hosted by the Hong Kong Football Club took place between
Wednesday May 25 and Saturday May 28. A total of 16 players for both the
men’s and women’s events were included in the main draw, 12 were
preselected with 4 additional players progressing from the Qualifying
draws held on Monday and Tuesday May 23-24.
Top seed Max Lee of Hong Kong succumbed in round 1 to Qualifier Ivan
Yuen of Malaysia who continued to progress through the tournament to the
semi-final stage but finally fell to 5th seed Paul Coll of New Zealand
in an 82 minute 5 set match. At the bottom of the men’s draw, Hong
Kong’s Leo Au (seeded 2) also progressed to the Semi-final but then met
an in-form Nafiizwan Adnan of Malaysia (seeded 3) who took the game 3-0.
Adnan sailed through the tournament winning his matches to the final
in straight games taking out Mahesh Mangaonkar of India, Mazen Gamal of
Egypt and then Leo Au, much to the disappointment of the local
supporters. Adnan continued with his match winning heroics beating Coll
11-6, 11-8, 11-8 in the final. Coll put up a solid performance but his
long match against Ivan Yuen, the night before, likely played a part.
In the women’s event top seed Joelle King of New Zealand, ranked 9 in
the world, took out Joey Chan of Hong Kong in round 1, then beat Dipika
Pallikal of India in round 2, followed by Donna Urquhart of Australia
in the semi-finals to set up a final against number 3 seed Joshna
Chinappa of India world ranked 13. Hong Kong’s Annie Au progressed to
the semi-final beating qualifier Liu Tsz-ling (Hong Kong) and Jenny
Duncalf of England but fell to Chinappa in a close 5 set match in the
semi-final.
Chinappa overcame qualifier Salma Hany Ibrahim of Egypt followed by a
50 minute 5-set match against ex world champion Rachel Grinham of New
Zealand and a 60 minute match against Au. In the final, Chinappa fought
back from 2 sets down to win the 3rd set, but King prevailed over a
close well contested match to win 3-1 (11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9).
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