Squash star Sivasangari makes her mark with first-ever win over Egyptian No. 1

Unbelievable: S. Sivasangari celebrating after beating world No. 1 Nour ElSherbini of Egypt in the London Classic quarter-finals. — PSA

PETALING JAYA: Squash player S. Sivasangari will cherish her first win against word No. 1 Nour ElSherbini of Egypt for the longest time.

Beating the world No. 1 ElSherbini has always being a monumental task but on Saturday Sivasangari finally broke her opponents’ strong resilience with a 11-9, 11-9 win in a 24-minute match at the Alexandra Palace to storm into the London Classic semi-finals.

She faces world No. 4 Nele Gilis of Belgium for a place in the final next.

World No. 16 Sivasangari has never even taken a set against ElSherbini in her previous two meetings in the Professional Squash Association (PSA) world tour

In fact, the 29-year-old ElSherbini has been so dominant on the PSA circuit that Sivasanagari became the first player outside the top 10 to beat the Egyptian superwoman since Hong Kong’s Annie Au did in 2015.

Another interesting statistic shows that Sivasangari is only the third Malaysian after squash legend Datuk Nicol David and Low Wee Wern to register victories over ElSherbini during their careers.

An Elsherbini failure appeared unthinkable but a relaxed Sivasangari showed anything was possible.

“I’m still speechless. That went really quick and I don’t know what was happening on court, beating the World No.1!” said the 25-year-old Sivasangari.

“A seven-time world champion and she is still young to be at that level but she has set the bar really high.

“I respect Sherbini a lot, she’s the best on tour and is really talented.

“To beat a player like her I needed to go in with my A game.

“It a bit tricky because it’s the best-of-three format. So, I went a bit more relaxed but focused to get the lead from the start.

“With Sherbini, you’ll never know because even at five match balls down, she can always make a comeback.

“Despite leading most of the time, I kept my focus on the game and that was the main thing.”

Sivasangari’s objective this year was to constantly reach the semi-finals and beyond on the PSA world tour events but she had to wait until the Squash in the Land tournament in Cleveland three weeks ago to achieve her feat.

She already showed her intent in Cleveland after taking world No. 6 Georgina Kennedy to five sets in the last four.

That performance had possibly toughened up the Malaysian against ElSherbini in the London Classic where the best of three format had given her some edge.

ElSherbini was said to have been observing fasting throughout the month of Ramadan but despite that, the Egyptian is one of the fittest on tour and never easy to beat.

QUARTER-FINAL RESULTS

Women: S.Sivasangari bt Nour ElSherbini (Egy) 11-9,11-9; Nele Gilis (Bel) Georgina Kennedy (Eng) 6-11,11-6,11-3; Nouran Gohar( Egy) bt Sarah-Jane Perry (Eng) 11-7,11-2; Hania El Hammamy (Egy) bt Fayrouz Aboelkheir (Egy) 9-11,11-8,11-4.