Daly College Open: Singh and Hamed Victorious

The last event of the year came to its conclusion on Thursday, with India’s Abhay Singh and Egypt’s Menna Hamed winning the titles at the Daly College & SquashXtreme SRFI Open in Indore.

The Challenger 10 level competition, which featured both a men’s and women’s event and was held at the Daly College in the Indian city, was the final Challenger Tour tournament after a busy 2022.

India’s Singh came into this tournament as the No.2 seed, and the last man left who had a chance of winning six Tour titles over the calendar year. He did so, to become only the second player, after Nouran Gohar, to reach six wins on Tour in 2022.

He started with a bye through the opening round of action, before then getting the better of Frenchman Brice Nicolas in straight games in the second round, to get his campaign in Indore underway.

Singh followed that up with victories over Egypt’s Seif Ashraf and No.7 seed Maceo Levy in the quarters and semi-finals, respectively. He took both of those wins in straight games, to set up a meeting with Egypt’s Zahed Salem, the former World No.14 and the tournament’s top seed, in the final.

It was the second straight final in which the two were meeting, with Singh getting the better of the Egyptian in Jodhpur last month. He led after the opening game, but saw the top seed fight back to level the contest. The same scenario followed across games three and four, before Singh got the job done in the deciding fifth game, winning it to add a sixth title to his 2022 collection.

In the women’s event, it was Egypt’s Menna Hamed that took the glory, as the No.2 seed came through to secure victory. The win is her second of 2022, following her first title at the PSA Cognac last month in France.

She started the week with a bye through the opening round before downing Nirupama Dubey in straight games to kick off her week. She followed that with two more straight games wins, against two fellow Egyptians. No.7 seed Amina El Rihany was dispatched in the last eight, with Hamed dropping just six points in the contest. She then got the better of Lojayn Gohary in the semis, winning 11-7, 11-6, 11-4 to move through to the final.

In the final, Hamed took on No.3 seed Tanvi Khanna, after the Indian had gotten the better of the tournament’s top seed, Akanksha Salunkhe, in the last four of the Challenger 10 level competition.

It was an incredible final, which swung both ways. Hamed took the lead, including winning the third on a tie-break 13-11, only for the Indian to level the match on both occasions, buoyed by the home crowd. The fifth and deciding game also went down to a tie-break, with the Egyptian eventually coming through it 12-10 to win after more than an hour.

Results: Daly College & SquashXtreme SRFI Open
Men’s Final
[2] Abhay Singh (IND) bt [1] Zahed Salem (EGY) 3-2: 11-7, 9-11, 11-8, 4-11, 11-7 (63m)

Women’s Final
[2] Menna Hamed (EGY) bt [3] Tanvi Khanna (IND) 3-2: 11-5, 6-11, 13-11, 9-11, 12-10 (66m)

Men’s Semi-Finals
[1] Zahed Salem (EGY) bt [3] Aly Hussein (EGY) 3-0: 11-5, 11-2, 11-3 (25m)
[2] Abhay Singh (IND) bt [7] Maceo Levy (FRA) 3-0: 11-6, 11-9, 11-8 (30m)

Women’s Semi-Finals
[3] Tanvi Khanna (IND) bt [1] Akanksha Salunkhe (IND) 3-0: 11-8, 11-7, 11-5 (26m)
[2] Menna Hamed (EGY) bt [4] Lojayn Gohary (EGY) 3-0: 11-7, 11-6, 11-4 (30m)

Men’s Quarter Finals
[1] Zahed Salem (EGY) bt Velavan Senthilkumar (IND) 3-0: 12-10, 11-5, 11-8 (35m)
[3] Aly Hussein (EGY) bt [8] Veer Chotrani (IND) 3-1: 9-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-9 (57m)
[7] Maceo Levy (FRA) bt Mohamed Gohar (EGY) 3-1: 10-12, 11-7, 11-8, 12-10 (57m)
[2] Abhay Singh (IND) bt Seif Ashraf (EGY) 3-0: 11-5, 11-9, 11-5 (25m)

Women’s Quarter Finals
[1] Akanksha Salunkhe (IND) bt Sanika Choudhari (IND) 3-0: 11-4, 11-5, 11-3 (20m)
[3] Tanvi Khanna (IND) bt [5] Urwashi Joshi (IND) 3-0: 11-3, 11-5, 11-1 (18m)\
[4] Lojayn Gohary (EGY) bt [6] Ingy Hammouda (EGY) 3-0: 11-8, 11-4, 11-4 (36m)
[2] Menna Hamed (EGY) bt [7] Amina El Rihany (EGY) 3-0: 11-2, 11-1, 11-3 (23m)

Men’s Second Round
[1] Zahed Salem (EGY) bt Baptiste Bouin (FRA) 3-0: 11-9, 11-7, 11-9 (35m)
Velavan Senthilkumar (IND) bt [5] Ravindu Laksiri (SRI) 3-0: 11-5, 11-6, 11-8 (30m)
[8] Veer Chotrani (IND) bt Rahul Baitha (IND) 3-1: 9-11, 11-8, 11-3, 10-6 rtd (26m)
[3] Aly Hussein (EGY) bt [WC] Krishna Mishra (IND) 3-0: 11-7, 11-9, 11-5 (36m)
Mohamed Gohar (EGY) bt [4] Khaled Labib (EGY) 3-2: 5-11, 7-11, 11-8, 12-10, 12-10 (60m)
[7] Maceo Levy (FRA) bt Kanhav Nanavati (IND) 3-1: 8-11, 12-10, 11-4, 11-9 (62m)
Seif Ashraf (EGY) bt [6] Abdelaziz Hegazy (EGY) 3-0: 11-7, 11-7, 11-8 (35m)
[2] Abhay Singh (IND) bt Brice Nicolas (FRA) 3-0: 11-8, 11-6, 11-4 (23m)

Women’s Second Round
[1] Akanksha Salunkhe (IND) bt Khushi Puranik (IND) 3-0: 11-1, 11-1, 11-0 (12m)
Sanika Choudhari (IND) bt [8] Habiba Hossam (EGY) 3-2: 3-11, 4-11, 11-6, 11-9, 13-11 (38m)
[5] Urwashi Joshi (IND) bt Anjali Semwal (IND) 3-0: 11-4, 11-2, 11-3 (16m)
[3] Tanvi Khanna (IND) bt Mahak Talati (IND) 3-0: 11-2, 11-1, 11-0 (12m)
[4] Lojayn Gohary (EGY) bt Janet Vidhi (IND) 3-0: 11-2, 11-5, 12-10 (23m)
[6] Ingy Hammouda (EGY) bt Karma Allam (EGY) 3-0: 12-10, 11-7, 12-10 (31m)
[7] Amina El Rihany (EGY) bt Rathika Suthanthira Seelan (IND) 3-0: 11-7, 11-1, 11-5 (20m)
[2] Menna Hamed (EGY) bt Nirupama Dubey (IND) 3-0: 11-8, 11-2, 11-4 (19m)

Men’s First Round
Baptiste Bouin (FRA) bt Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (IND) 3-1: 9-11, 11-9, 11-3, 11-6 (42m)
Velavan Senthilkumar (IND) bt Abdelrahman Abdelkhalek (EGY) 3-0: 11-4, 11-5, 11-4 (22m)
Rahul Baitha (IND) bt Ravi Dixit (IND) 3-0: 13-11, 11-7, 11-6 (25m)
[WC] Krishna Mishra (IND) bt Laouenan Loaec (FRA) 3-0: 11-7, 11-5, 11-7 (32m)
Mohamed Gohar (EGY) bt Jaideep Singh Sethi (IND) 3-0: 13-11, 11-2, 11-5 (26m)
Kanhav Nanavati (IND) bt Sven Stettler (SUI) 3-1: 6-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-6 (44m)
Seif Ashraf (EGY) bt Athbi Hamad (KUW) 3-2: 11-9, 5-11, 11-4, 4-11, 11-9 (47m)
Brice Nicolas (FRA) bt Yusuf Elsherif (EGY) 3-2: 11-4, 13-11, 7-11, 7-11, 11-6 (84m)

Women’s First Round
Khushi Puranik (IND) bt Chazerina Benjamin (IND) 3-2: 3-11, 11-3, 11-7, 6-11, 11-7 (33m)
Sanika Choudhari (IND) bt Bijali Darvada (IND) 3-0: 11-2, 11-8, 11-5 (15m)
Janet Vidhi (IND) bt Aishni Pathak (IND) 3-0: 11-5, 11-6, 11-8 (17m)
Karma Allam (EGY) bt Aaryaa Belsare (IND) 3-0: 11-6, 11-7, 11-9 (19m)
Nirupama Dubey (IND) bt Radhika Rathore (IND) 3-1: 11-7, 9-11, 13-11, 11-5 (33m)