Sivasangari targets world top three, Platinum success after Silicon triumph

KUALA LUMPUR: S. Sivasangari has another Gold-level title under her belt, but the Malaysian is hungry for bigger prizes as she sets her sights on breaking into the world's top three.

The world No. 4 strengthened her credentials with a dominant victory at the Silicon Valley Open in Redwood City, California, on Saturday, beating Egypt's world No. 20 Farida Mohamed 11-7, 11-6, 11-8 in 31 minutes to claim her fourth Gold-level crown.

And Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia (SRAM) coaching director Andrew Cross believes Sivasangari is firmly on course to challenge the world's elite.

"She is definitely chasing for the top three ranking in the world," said Cross.

The 27-year-old's latest success adds to her Gold-level titles at the London Classic in 2024, and the Australian Open and Grasshopper Cup last season.

But Sivasangari is now determined to make the breakthrough at Platinum level, with the US Open in Philadelphia from Nov 1-7 her next opportunity.

She has already shown she can challenge the best, having reached the semi-finals of the Platinum-level Egyptian Open this month, where she narrowly lost to world No. 2 Hania El Hammamy in a deciding fifth game.

"And her next tournament will be the Platinum-level US Open," said Cross.

Sivasangari, who has trained under French coach Gregory Gaultier in Prague since last year, has continued to make progress against the leading players, including Egypt's top-ranked trio of world No. 1 Amina Orfi, Hania and world No. 3 Nour El Sherbini.

Her Silicon Valley victory was her third win in five meetings against Farida, 24, and took her career tally to 18 PSA titles from 28 final appearances since turning professional 15 years ago.

Sivasangari was pleased with how she handled the pressure of being the third seed in the draw.

"Definitely very happy with how I performed the whole week.

"There was a bit of pressure on me as the top two ranked players did not play in the tournament, so it was left to me to face the lower-ranked players.

"But, just happy with the way I handled it, stayed composed, and won the final in three games today," she told the PSA Squash Tour.

Having already earned her place at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics by retaining her Asian Games title last month, Sivasangari now has another challenge in her sights.

"Obviously, I have already won the Gold-level title at the beginning of this season. I told myself, I want to break through and go into the semi-finals of the Platinum events, which I have already done at the start of this season.

"So now I have to go one step higher and try to win a Platinum-level tournament."