Belgian Nele Coll’s defence of her VITAGEN Singapore Squash Open title came to a halt after a straight-game quarterfinal loss (5-11,5-11,3-11) to 17-year-old Amina Orfi of Egypt on Friday.

Coll, the tournament’s second seed, hoped to replicate her success from last year but struggled to gain control as Orfi dictated the tempo and intensity throughout their 42-minute encounter at the OCBC Arena.

“It has been an amazing tournament so far, and I’m looking forward to seeing how far I can go from here. I told myself to play like how I would during training and not think too much about the pressure. It paid off very well today,” said Orfi.

Men’s defending champion and world No. 1 Ali Farag of Egypt eased past Hungary’s Balazs Farkas with a commanding 3-0 (11-5, 11-4, 12-10) victory in just 26 minutes. Now two matches away from retaining his title, Farag will face Malaysia’s Eain Yow Ng in the semifinals.

“I know there are only two matches more to go before I can retain the title again. But these two matches are going to be the toughest.  Yow is playing very well, and I have to be ready from the very beginning,” said Ali.

World junior champion Mohamad Zakaria’s run ended in the quarterfinals as men’s world champion Diego Elias of Peru defeated the 17-year-old 3-0 (11-2, 11-7, 11-4). Elias, making his third consecutive semifinal appearance in Singapore, praised the young Egyptian’s potential.

“I’m happy to be back playing the semis, and hopefully I can win the finals on Sunday. But looking at today’s match against Zakaria, he’s such a good player for his age. He looked very nervous in the first game, and I took advantage of that. In the second and third game, I just played my attacking game and it worked out well,” said Elias.

Ng booked his first PSA Gold semifinal in spectacular fashion, prevailing in a 3-2 (9-11, 12-10, 11-1, 6-11, 20-18) epic against France’s Victor Crouin. Ng staged a remarkable comeback in the fifth game, clawing back from 1-6 down, overturning three match balls, and finally closing out the match on his seventh match ball after 107 minutes – the longest match of the tournament.

“I was just surviving point; it just kept going on and on. At some stage, I just switched off and played every ball. I’m not really sure what happened at the end; I’m just happy to get through,” said a jubilant Ng.

Malaysia’s Siva Subramaniam overcame Egypt’s Fayrouz Aboelkheir in a tense five-game clash, winning 3-2 (9-11, 11-3, 7-11, 11-8, 11-2) in 46 minutes. The world No. 9 credited her mental resilience for the victory.

“It was a tricky match. It was tough mentally more than physically. I didn’t feel that tired, but she was taking away my rhythm, and I couldn’t find my length. In the fourth and fifth, I managed to find my length, and I think that opened up the court a bit more. Then I took my opportunities well,” said Siva.

Women’s top seed Hania El Hammamy defeated England’s World No.33 Katie Malliff 3-1 (11-5, 9-11, 11-8, 11-3) to set up a semifinal clash with Belgium’s Tinne Gilis.

Gilis, last year’s runner-up, overcame Egypt’s Sana Ibrahim 3-1 (11-5, 11-13, 11-3, 11-5) in a challenging encounter.

“That wasn’t easy at all; I wasn’t expecting it to be. Sana has been playing her best squash so far this season, and she’s been beating some of the top 10 players, so I wasn’t taking this lightly at all. She pushed me to the limit and I had to really focus on every point. Even at the end, she fought for every ball, and she is so dangerous,” said the Gilis.

Second seed Paul Coll of New Zealand also punched his ticket to the last four with a 3-1 (11-5, 11-2, 8-11, 14-12) win over seventh seed Youssef Ibrahim of Egypt.

Photo Credit: VITAGEN Singapore Squash Open

The VITAGEN Singapore Squash Open, with a prize purse of US$220,000, takes place at the OCBC Arena from 19th to 24th November 2024, showcasing 48 of the world’s top men’s and women’s squash players. Tickets and more information available here