Mumbai, Nov 28 (IANS) Top seed Anjali Semwal will meet fifth seed Sanya Vats, and second seed Shameena Riaz will take on fourth seed Nirupama Dubey in the women’s semifinals of the JSW 11th Sunil Verma Memorial squash championship in Thane on Saturday.

The men’s last-four stage of the Professional Squash Association (PSA) Challenger event will pit sixth-seed Suraj Kumar Chand against French second seed Maceo Levy, while Egyptian top seed Yassin Elshafei will lock horns with Malaysian third seed Addeen Idrakie.

In the quarterfinals on Friday, Anjali Semwal beat Aahana Singh 3-0, while Suraj Chand was the lone Indian in the men’s field to make it to the last-four.

Earlier, India’s Aaradhana Kasturiraj made a winning start in the women’s section of the JSW 11th Sunil Verma Memorial squash, a PSA Challenger event, beating compatriot Shuvra Borah 11-6, 11-9, 11-7 in Thane on Wednesday.

In the men’s round-of-32, Rahul Baitha eased past Divit Poojary 11-7, 11-5, 11-8. Among other matches, Reiva Nimbalkar defeated Rani Gupta 11-5, 11-3, 11-4 and Gurveer Singh put it past Ayaan Vaziralli 11-9, 11-3, 11-6.

In the previous PSA event held in India last week, teenage talent Anahat Singh rose to the occasion, edging out experienced Joshna Chinappa 3-2 in an exciting all-Indian women’s final of the Daly College SRFI Indian Open squash in Indore on Saturday.

Top seed Anahat, ranked 33 in the world, won a close clash that lasted 55 minutes 11-8, 11-13, 11-9, 6-11, 11-9 for her 13th PSA title.

Former world No. 10 Joshna, 39 years of age, drew from her wealth of experience to take the contest down to the wire, even levelling the final game at 6-all before youthful Anahat nosed ahead.

Quarterfinal results (Indians unless mentioned):

Men: 1-Yassin Elshafei (Egy) bt Gurveer Singh 11-7, 11-9, 6-11, 10-12, 11-9; 3-Addeen Idrakie (Mas) bt Abhishek Agarwal 8-11, 11-3, 11-7, 11-8; 2-Maceo Levy (Fra) bt Om Semwal 6-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-1; 6-Suraj Kumar Chand bt 4-Ravindu Laksiri (SL) 11-8, 11-5, 11-3.

Women: 1-Anjali Semwal bt Aahana Singh 11-4, 11-6, 14-12; 5-Sanya Vats bt 3-Rathika Suthanthira Seelan 11-6, 11-9, 11-5; 4-Nirupama Dubey bt 7-Unnati Tripathi 11-6, 11-8, 14-12; 2-Shameena Riaz bt Aadya Budhia 11-3, 11-4, 11-9.

–IANS

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