Anahat Singh beats sixth-seed Salma Hany in a thrilling match to reach Silicon Valley Open semifinals

The 18-year-old now will face Malaysia’s Sivasangari Subramaniam, who recently beat her in the Asian Games gold medal match.

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Teenage squash star Anahat Singh continues her great run in the Silicon Valley Open in Redwood City (USA) on Friday. After upsetting world number three Egyptian Nour El Sherbini on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals, the 18-year-old Indian dispatched another Egyptian and sixth-seed Salma Hany in a thrilling match to reach the last-4.

Anahat lost the first game in quick time 11-4, but after that, she made a superb comeback and won the next game, 11-8. Hany responded with another quick 11-4 win. Under pressure, Anahat upped her game big time and thrashed her opponent, ranked 14th in the world, in the next two games 11-2, 11-5 and took the contest 3-2.

Anahat will now play Malaysia’s Sivasangari Subramaniam in the semis. The third seed Subramaniam recently beat the Indian 11-4, 11-4, 11-7 in the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games gold medal match. Anahat, who picked up two medals in the Asian Games, will look to avenge that defeat for sure.

"It feels great. Coming into the match, I had never played her before, so I did not really know what to expect. I have watched her play so many times, and she is highly experienced on the PSA World Tour. I was just looking forward to seeing how I would match up against her. I did not start off well.

"The first game was 11-4, which was a pretty bad start. However, I wanted to find a way to make my way back into the match and put up a fight. Whether it resulted in a win or a loss, I did not want to let it go too easily. I gave it my all in the second game and tried to make it one-all. We kept winning games alternately, so it was quite a roller-coaster. I am happy I got through it," Ahahat said after winning her match.

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