Azman and Ghosal Take Honours at Malaysian Open

Tournament wildcard Aifa Azman capped a fantastic week of action at the 2021 Malaysian Open Squash Championships with a stunning upset of top seed and World No.8 Salma Hany to win her biggest PSA title to date.

19-year-old Azman – the World No.69 – had already won 10 titles on the PSA Tour prior to this tournament, but broke new ground at the National Squash Centre in Kuala Lumpur this week to win a PSA World Tour Bronze event for the first time.

Azman was in red-hot form after reaching four successive finals in the build up to the event – winning three of them – and overcame Egyptian opposition in four of her five matches in Malaysia.

She put Mayar Hany to the sword in round one before upsetting No.3 seed Yathreb Adel in the last 16. Wins against Hana Ramadan and World No.19 Danielle Letourneau then followed, pitting her up against heavy favourite Salma Hany in the title decider.

Hany had come close to falling to a shock defeat against Azman’s fellow Malaysian – Rachel Arnold – in the quarter finals and was blown away by her final opponent as Azman closed out a 12-10, 11-8, 11-4 to win the 11th PSA title of her career.

Meanwhile, India’s World No.15 Saurav Ghosal has won his first PSA event for over three years after he defeated Colombia’s Miguel Rodriguez to capture the men’s title.

Both players are veterans of the sport at 35 years of age. Ghosal made it through to the final relatively untroubled as he won all three of his matches by a 3-0 margin, while Rodriguez came close to falling to a shock defeat against Japan’s Ryosei Kobayashi in the second round, eventually coming through to win 12-10 in the fifth.

However, there was to be no recovery from World No.12 Rodriguez in his final bout with Ghosal, as the man from Kolkata completed an 11-7, 11-8, 13-11 victory to seal the 10th PSA title of his career.

Results – Men’s Final: 2021 Malaysian Open Squash Championships
[2] Saurav Ghosal (IND) bt [1] Miguel Rodriguez (COL) 3-0: 11-7, 11-8, 15-13 (55m)

Results – Women’s Final: 2021 Malaysian Open Squash Championships
[WC] Aifa Azman (MAS) bt [1] Salma Hany (EGY) 3-0: 12-10, 11-8, 11-4 (30m)