Hania set to be a handful for Sangari in fight for semis spot

PETALING JAYA: It will be a tall order for world No. 6 S. Sivasangari as she prepares to face world No. 2 Hania El Hammamy tomorrow for a place in the Hong Kong Open semi-finals.

In their eight previous meetings, Sivasangari has only managed two wins over the Egyptian, including the memorable victory in last year’s London Squash Classic final.

However, since that triumph, Sivasangari has struggled to get the better of El Hammamy. Their most recent clash came in the Qatar Classic quarter-finals in Doha last October, where El Hammamy went on to win the title.

Earlier at the Hong Kong Squash Centre, Sivasangari got past France’s Melissa Alves in the second round, winning 11-8, 5-11, 11-5, 11-7 in 32 minutes.

The win sent Sivasangari into the quarter-finals and marked an improvement from last year’s edition, where she fell in the second round to Belgium’s Nele Gilis.

Top seed El Hammamy was pushed hard by Wales’ Tesni Murphy before prevailing 11-6, 11-2, 7-11, 11-8 to reach the quarter-finals.

Meanwhile, her teammate Aifa Azman will take to the court today for her second-round match and she also faces a tough task as she goes up against world No. 3 Amina Orfi of Egypt.

This will be the first meeting between the two players, and Aifa will need to dig deep to get past Orfi as the rising young Egyptian is coming in fresh from her China Open triumph last month.

Last year, just like Sivasangari, Aifa’s run in the tournament also ended in the second round and ironically it was Alves who stopped her.