Challenger Events
Challenger Tour Round-Up: Rehman Survives Mozart Scare; 15 Seeds Crash Out in Spain
Mozart Open 2024
Top seed Aqeel Rehman survived a big scare on quarter-finals day at the Mozart Open, saving a match ball in the fourth on his way to a comeback win over Switzerland’s Robin Gadola.
Gadola had knocked Rehman out at the same stage of this event last year, and looked as though he was heading for a repeat performance this time around, especially at 11-10 up in game four, with a 2-1 lead.
But cheered on by the home crowd inside the unique venue where this event is being played – EUROPARK shopping centre – Rehman rallied to turn the tide in his favour, saving match ball before taking the tiebreak 13-11, going on to clinch the decider 11-7.
HCL Squash Tour – Chennai 2024
Ravi Dixit caused the biggest upset on quarter-finals day at the HCL Squash Tour – Chennai, knocking out sixth seed Adarsh Banodha.
Dixit is a former World No.116 who has dropped outside the top 500, having not progressed past the last 16 in any of his last 27 events, but he’s now one win away from a spot in the final after knocking out the 22-year-old Bandoha.
The 32-year-old will now play Rahul Baitha in the final four, after the No.2 seed battled through a four-game encounter with Guhan Senthilkumar.
In the women’s draw, Rathika Suthanthira Seelan beat Pooja Arthi Raghu for the second time in the last two weeks, winning 3-2 in 45 minutes just a few days after beating the 19-year-old in the Indore leg final of the HCL Squash Tour.
WA Open International 2024
Malaysian teenager Joachim Chuah continued his red-hot form in round two of WA Open International, knocking out home favourite Remi Young.
No.8 seed Young would have been hoping to make a splash in his home city of Perth, but could hardly have wished for a tougher draw, facing a player in Chuah who had reached the final of his last two events, winning one.
Despite the Malaysian’s impressive recent form, it was actually Young who took game one, 11-9, but the 19-year-old soon found his feet, controlling the next three games to canter into the quarter-finals.
Young was the only men’s seed not to reach the last eight, though Nicholas Calvert did need all five games to beat fellow Aussie Cameron Darton.
It was a similar story in the women’s draw, which saw six of the eight seeds progress, including five Australians.
The only two seeds not to make it through were seventh seed Remashree Muniandy, who lost to the in-form Madeleine Hylland, and fifth seed Erisa Sano Herring, who went down 3-0 to Shasmithaa Nityanandan.
Harcourts KDRE Morrinsville PSA Challenger 2024
Australia’s Lachlan Coxsedge knocked out No.2 seed William Donnelly to reach the Harcourts KDRE Morrinsville PSA Challenger semi-finals, where he will join the other three of the top four seeds.
Coxsedge is ranked almost 200 places below his Kiwi opponent in the world, but defied those rankings and home advantage to reach the last four, where Samoa’s Mason Smales awaits.
Smales eased past New Zealand’s Allan Bailey in just half an hour, while top Temwa Chileshe and fourth seed Oliver Dunbar also progressed, beating Joe Williams and Glenn Templeton respectively.
Open Costa Brava Squash Project 2024
Only one seed remains in either the men’s or women’s draws after an extraordinary day two at the Open Costa Brava Squash Project.
Both round two and the quarter-finals took place on the second day of competition in Spain, and it was round two where most of the drama happened, as seven seeds crashed out in both the men’s and women’s draws.
That left only Juliette Permentier – women’s third seed – and Syan Singh – men’s eighth seed, remaining in the quarter-finals, but Permentier fell in the quarter-finals, losing to Cristina Tartarone.
Singh did progress, setting up a meeting with Denis Gilevskiy in the semi-finals, with the USA’s Hollis Robertson and England’s Samuel Osborne–Wylde battling it out for the other spot in the men’s final.
You can stay up to date with all the results on the Challenger Tour here.
Photo credit: Jasmin Walter
