Abhay goes down fighting to World No. 15 Dessouky in Qatar Classic squash

Mumbai, Sep 29 (IANS) India’s Abhay Singh went down in a five-game thriller to Egyptian world No. 15 Fares Dessouky in the Round of 16 at the Qatar Classic squash, a USD 231,500 PSA Platinum event being played in Doha, Qatar, on Monday.

World No. 35 Abhay, who stunned former world champion and current world No. 5 Karim Gawad of Egypt in the previous round, took the lead twice against Dessouky before the Egyptian clawed back to win 11-13, 11-5, 9-11, 11-3, 11-3 in 66 minutes.

Abhay, 27, a multiple Asian Games medallist, will next play in a PSA Bronze event in New York from October 5.

Earlier, India's Ramit Tandon went down 3-0 to the top-seeded Mostafa Asal of Egypt in the first round, going down 4-11, 5-11, 4-11.

Meanwhile, in the women's section, seventh seed Malaysia Sivasangari Subramaniam defeated Belgium’s Nele Giliss 3-0 in the second round to seal a place in the quarterfinals. Sivasangari won 11-8, 11-6, 11-5 in the PSA Platinum level tournament, which offers a total prize fund of $231,500 each for men's and women's sections.

On the first day of the competition on Sunday, Egypt’s World No.14 Mohamad Zakaria earned the biggest win of his career to date after taking out World No.4 Joel Makin as eight of the top 16 seeds exited the Platinum-level Qatar Classic in round one.

Zakaria had lost out to No.3 seed Makin in the third round of the CIB Egyptian Open earlier this month but dominated proceedings today at Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, winning 11-5, 11-7, 11-7 in 67 minutes to score his first win over a player inside the world’s top four.

In the women’s event, Malaysia’s Aira Azman got the better of No.5 seed Satomi Watanabe, while No.8 seed Georgina Kennedy saw her tournament come to an end against France’s Melissa Alves. Azman came back from two games down against Watanabe to claim her first win over the World No.6 to reach the last 16 of the Qatar Classic for the first time.

--IANS

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