Challenger Events
ACE Challenger Tour 12k Day 1: Joshi Battles Past Clark, Lim Holds Off Hapers Fightback
India’s Urwashi Joshi battled past England’s Polly Clark in five games on day one of the ACE Challenger Tour 12k, setting up a second-round clash with top seed Aifa Azman.
The two players had never met before on the PSA Tour, but was Clark who took an early lead, winning game one 11-5, only for Joshi to level the score in the second.
That game finished 11-7, but game three would prove to be the tightest of the match, going all the way to a tiebreak, which had a controversial finish.
Clark appeared to clear a backhand down the line at 13-12 down, but the referee disagreed after Joshi had held her swing, with a stroke decision giving the Indian player the game.
The Englishwoman left the court in disbelief, but regained her composure well when the players returned, eventually taking game four 11-9 on another stroke, this time on a more obvious decision after a Joshi backhand popped out from the wall.
A fast start to game five was always likely to be crucial, and it was the Indian player who got her nose in front, wrong-footing her opponent on a forehand boast winner on the second point after Clark had found the tin on the first.
From there, Joshi remained in control, bringing up six match balls with a smart forehand volley drop, before slamming down a backhand kill a few moments later to wrap things up.
That was one of two five-game encounters in round one, with home favourite Bryan Lim holding off a strong fightback from Joeri Hapers on court two.
After losing the first two games 11-6, 11-7, Belgium’s Hapers reversed the fortunes by winning the next two 11-7, 11-6, but was unable to complete the turnaround, losing a tense deciding game 11-9.
Elsewhere, there was an utterly dominant win for Australia’s Remashree Muniandy, who lost only two points in her win over Mahak Talati, while Malaysia’s Jessica Keng cruised past a player ranked more than 50 places above her in the form of Kincso Szász, winning 11-3, 11-5, 11-5.
Rising Egyptian talent Yassin Shohdy also enjoyed a successful evening of work, denying in-form Sri Lankan Ravindu Laksiri a place in round two.
Laksiri was the Challenger Men’s Player of the Month for August after winning two separate tournaments, but his quest to make it a third in a row ended in round one here, going down 11-9, 11-4, 12-10.
Round two of the ACE Challenger Tour 12k gets underway at 12pm local time on Thursday, September 5th, streaming live on the SQUASHTV Live Streaming YouTube channel.
