Challenger Tour Round-Up: Lai Back from the Brink in Hong Kong

Top seed Matthew Lai moved within one win of claiming his first PSA Tour title, as he outlasted Ho Ka Hei in a 72-minute epic at the KCC PSA Challenge Cup 2. 

Lai looked in control after the first two games, taking them 11-9, 11-7, but the tables turned in the third, as Ho won the first seven points before closing it out 11-2. 

The No.1 seed re-grouped in what proved to be a mouthwatering fourth, with neither player ever getting more than two points clear. 

Ho, the No.4 seed, eventually took it 18-16 to keep himself alive, but not before saving two match points. 

He then had match balls of his own in an equally enthralling fifth, letting a 10-7 lead slip by losing five points on the trot to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. 

Lai will now face Hafiz Zhafri in the final, after the Malaysian No.7 seed knocked out Wailok To.

Zhafri’s win denied the potential for an all-Hong Kong final in both draws, with local players Cheng Nga Ching and Ching Hei Fung – the No.1 and No.3 seeds respectively – set to battle it out for glory in the women’s side.

Elsewhere, Kareem El Torkey is also one win away from his first PSA Tour title, after sweeping aside Sebastiaan Hofman of the Netherlands in the semi-finals of the 3rd Bangabandhu Squash Tournament Presented by Ispahani. 

The 19-year-old Egyptian has won all three of his matches in Dhaka in straight games, dropping a total of just 38 points all week. 

His opponent in the final will be another 19-year-old Egyptian in the form of Seif Tamer. 

Like El Torkey, Tamer is targeting his first PSA Tour title, but unlike El Torkey, he’s never reached this stage before, with this event being just his second at Tour level.

In the Copa Mexico Temazcal, the top four seeds will compete the semi-finals.

Ronald Palomino was the only one of the four to drop a game in his quarter-final, as Jorge Gomez, Alejandro Reyes and Alfredo Avila all cruised through with relative ease.

You can see all the results from this week’s PSA Challenger Tour events here.