Challenger Events
Challenger Tour Round-Up: Kumar into Sixth Straight Final; Scianimanico Ends Iqbal Run
ACE Challenger 6K 2nd Leg 2024
The ACE Challenger 6K 2nd Leg finals will feature three Malaysian players, with a home winner guaranteed in the women’s final.
Both women’s finals pitted a Malaysian player against an Egyptian, and it proved to be a successful day for the home favourites, as Sehveetrraa Kumar and Xin Ying Yee came out on top.
Opening the day’s play, the in-form Kumar beat fifth seed Malak Fathy 3-0 to reach her sixth straight Tour final, slamming a backhand winner cross-court to close out victory after 37 minutes of play.
That was followed by a win for Yee over fifth seed Habiba Hani, who took game one 11-9 but was unable to capitalise on her advantage, with the 20-year-old Malaysian winning the next three games 11-7, 11-8, 11-4.
There, will, however, be an Egyptian player in the men’s final, with 19-year-old Yassin Shohdy looking to win his first Tour title away from home.
The Cairo native has one PSA Tour trophy to his name, coming in the Giza Region Challenger 1 earlier this year, but he will now have his sights set on another after beating Malaysia’s Duncan Lee 11-6, 11-8, 11-7.
Standing in his way will be top seed and home favourite Mohammad Syafiq Kamal, who has rediscovered his form on home soil this week.
The 27-year-old lefty had not progressed past the quarter-finals of an event this season coming into this one, but booked his spot in the final here with a comfortable 3-0 victory over third seed Ravindu Laksiri, denying the Sri Lankan a fifth straight final appearance in the process.
The finals of the ACE Challenger 6K 2nd Leg get underway at 2:15pm local time (7:15am BST) on Sunday, July 14th, streaming live on the SQUASHTV Live Streaming YouTube channel. Click here to tune in.
Victorian Open 2024
France’s Melvil Scianimanico ended the run of Nasir Iqbal in the Victorian Open semi-finals, denying the Pakistani player a fourth straight PSA Tour final.
30-year-old Iqbal – a former World No.35 – had won his last two events and looked to be on course for a third consecutive title after reaching the semi-finals here without dropping a game, but Scianimanico had other ideas.
The 19-year-old – one of the most talented young stars in French squash – took game one 11-9 only to be bagelled in game two, but regained his composure to edge a crucial third-game tiebreak 13-11, closing out victory 11-7 in the fourth.
He will now take on top seed Bryan Lim, who ended home hopes in the other men’s semi-final, beating Dylan Molinaro 3-0.
Molinaro’s defeat followed losses for two Australian players in the women’s semi-finals, as Remashree Muniandy and Sarah Cardwell were both beaten 3-0.
Seventh seed Muniandy was well beaten by top seed Amina El Rihany in just 17 minutes, while Cardwell went down by the same scoreline to the in-form Madeleine Hylland.
Hylland has reached the final in three of her last four events, climbing almost 100 places in the world rankings, and is now just one win away from clinching her third PSA Tour title.
2nd Cay Open 2024
The top two seeds cruised into the 2nd Cay Open final in Brazil, setting up a matchup between two hometown favourites in Sao Paulo.
Top seed and Brazilian No.1 Diego Gobbi was the first to book his spot in the trophy showdown, taking just half an hour to record a dominant 3-0 win over sixth seed Yuri Pollak, losing no more than three points in any of the three games.
The World No.96 will now have his sights set on a third career title in what will be his seventh Tour final, with second seed Rhuan Sousa standing in his way.
The 22-year-old had never reached a Tour final before, but changed that record with a comfortable 3-0 win of his own on semi-finals day, easing past Gabriel Pederiva.
To get his hands on a maiden Tour titlte, Sousa will now need to do something he’s failed to do before – beat Diego Gobbi. The pair have met twice before, once in 2023 and once in 2021, with Gobbi winning 3-0 on both occasions.
You can stay up to date with all the results on the PSA Challenger Tour here.
