Challenger Tour Round-Up: Zaman Beats Top Seed to Reach Hong Kong Final

Hong Kong Squash PSA Challenge Cup 2024 – 2nd Leg 

Noor Zaman booked his spot in a second straight PSA Challenger Tour final, beating No.1 seed Yassin Elshafei in the Hong Kong Squash PSA Challenge Cup – 2nd Leg semi-finals. 

The young Pakistani player won the CAS-Serena Hotels International Squash Championship on home soil in December, and now has his sights set on another Tour title after cruising past his Egyptian opponent. 

The match was relatively one-sided, finishing 3-0 in less than half an hour, with Zaman particularly impressive in game three, which he won 11-3. 

The same could not be said of the second men’s semi-final, though, with Hong Kong duo Andes Ling and Matthew Lai going toe-to-toe over five games. 

Twice Lai had a one-game lead but twice he was pegged back by his unseeded opponent, before eventually getting over the line in the fifth, winning it 11-6. 

The women’s final will see fourth seed Amina El Rihani take on No.2 seed Yiwen Chan, who both beat Egyptian players to reach this stage. 

El Rihani came through a tough battle with compatriot Habiba Hani, in which the 3-0 scoreline does little to justify how close the matchup was. 

Both games one and three went to tie breaks, finishing 14-12 and 16-14 respectively, and even with game two finishing 11-5, the match still lasted close to 40 minutes. 

Chan, meanwhile, ended the impressive run of Jana Swaify to give herself a shot at the title. 

16-year-old Swaify had already knocked out two seeds en route to the last four, but No.2 seed Chan would be one step too far, with the Malaysian booking her spot in an eighth PSA Tour final. 

Brno Open 

Martin Svec saved two match balls on his way to a thrilling semi-final win over Anthony Lepper on home soil at the Brno Open. 

Svec is the No.1 seed for this territory event and is ranked 67 places above the Kiwi, who lives and trains in the Czech Republic with Gregory Gaultier, but he had to do things to hard way to reach this final. 

After winning games one and three 11-7, with Lepper taking game two 11-9, Svec found himself on the brink of defeat at 9-6 in the deciding fifth, with Lepper having cruised through game four to win it 11-2. 

But the 29-year-old rallied to win the next four points and bring up a match ball, only to be denied by Lepper to send the game into a tie break. 

The pair then traded blows for another five minutes, with Lepper having two match balls and Svec another three, finally taking his fourth opportunity to wrap up the 70-minute victory. 

His opponent in the final will be Daniel Mekbib, who beat Jakub Solnicky 3-1 in an all-Czech matchup. 

In the women’s draw, 16-year-old Karolína Šrámková is into her first PSA Tour final, after sweeping aside No.3 seed Anastasiia Kostiukova of Ukraine 3-0. 

The talented young Czech is playing just her third Challenger Tour event, but will now have a shot at glory after cruising through her semi-final 11-3, 11-6, 11-6. 

She won’t have any advantage in terms of fatigue, though, with No.6 seed Michaela Cepová having had an even easier path to the final, spending just 17 minutes on court in her 3-0 win over Poland’s Tola Otrzasek, dropping only 12 points in the match. 

You can stay up to date with all the PSA Challenger Tour results here.