Anahat Singh, 18, beat top seed and eight-time world champion Nour El Sherbini 11-8, 11-8, 11-7 in 30 minutes at the Silicon Valley Open in Redwood City, the biggest win of her career, to book a quarter-final against Egypt’s Salma Hany.
Redwood City, United States: The Indian teenager walked into the second round of the PSA Gold event ranked 15th in the world, facing an opponent ranked third and the tournament’s top seed. She left the court half an hour later with a straight-games win over a player with eight world titles.
A 30-minute statement
Singh won the first two games 11-8 and the third 11-7 against the Egyptian top seed. The match was played on Wednesday evening local time, which was early on Thursday in India. Afterwards she said she had grown up watching every one of Sherbini’s matches and called the Egyptian an inspiration.
The road to the last eight
Singh opened her campaign with a 3-0 win over Egypt’s Nour Aboulmakarim, 11-8, 11-8, 12-10 in 31 minutes. The Sherbini win came a day later. The 18-year-old won the world junior title earlier this year and took women’s singles silver at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, where India also won team bronze.
Hany next
Singh now plays Salma Hany, the sixth seed and world No. 14, in the quarter-finals on Thursday at 2:15 pm local time, which is 2:45 am IST on Friday. It will be the first meeting between the two. The tournament, which carries a purse of $143,500, runs from 20 to 24 October.
Result: Anahat Singh (India) beat Nour El Sherbini (Egypt, 1) 11-8, 11-8, 11-7 in 30 minutes in the second round of the Silicon Valley Open.
Next: Quarter-final against Salma Hany (Egypt, 6).
