NAFIIZWAN Adnan kept his hopes of a first PSA Tour title of 2014 alive yesterday as one Malaysian is guaranteed to reach the Royal Lake Club Open final in Kuala Lumpur.
National No 2 Nafiizwan, who lost to Ong Beng Hee in the Royal Lake Club final last year, advanced to the semi-finals with a 12-10, 19-17, 11-7 win over Yip Tsz Fung.
Nafiizwan needed four minutes short of an hour to overcome the seventh-seeded player from Hong Kong after a marathon second game which could have gone either way.
Up next for Nafiizwan is compatriot Asyraf Azan, who went some way to show the Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia (SRAM) that they were wrong to axe him from the national squad after beating Ivan Yuen 11-8, 9-11, 12-10, 6-11, 11-7 in an all-Malaysian tie.
This tournament is Asyraf’s first in the country after being shown the door by SRAM last year with the 2010 Malaysia Games winner from Kuala Lumpur mostly plying his trade abroad.
Other quarter-final matches saw second seed Zahed Mohamed of Egypt downed 2012 Malaysia Games champion Adreen Idrakie Bahtiar 11-9, 11-2, 11-8 while Pakistan’s Farhan Zaman upset third seed Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu of India 10-12, 11-8, 11-8, 11-9. By Devinder Singh