It’s a big boost for Rachel Arnold after she stormed into her second straight final on the Professional Squash Association (PSA) Tour.
The 23-year-old, who is the younger sister of former World No 12 and national coach Delia, has always shown promise but struggled to deliver results consistently.
This time, however, Rachel was at her best when she ousted Egyptian Menna Hamed 11-3, 10-12, 11-5, 11-3 in the semi-finals of the SRFI Indian Tour in Chennai yesterday.
The World No 43, who is on a high after clinching her biggest career title at the PSA Challenger 20 Malaysian Open last month, started on song as she raced into a 6-1 lead before finishing the first game in less than five minutes.
The top seed appeared to be cruising after holding a 9-6 advantage in the second game, but got sloppy and allowed World No 60 Menna to level at 9-9 before tying the match at one apiece after a brief tiebreak.
Instead of collapsing like she used to, Rachel came back with fire in her eyes as she sealed the win in 33 minutes.
The KL-born will now be aiming for a second straight title, albeit a PSA Challenger 10, when she meets Lai Wen Li in an all-Malaysian final.
Fifth seed Wen Li, who has claimed a big upset by beating home favourite and fourth seed Sunayna Kuruvilla in the quarter-finals, did it again by knocking out second seed Menna Nasser of Egypt.
World No 81 Sabahan recovered from blowing the advantage in the first game to score a 10-12, 12-10, 11-7, 7-11, 12-10 win over the World No 51.
In the men’s event, national No 2 Ivan Yuen marched into his first PSA final since winning the DHA Cup in Pakistan last year.
The top seeded Ivan was just too good as he took out homester Aditya Jagtap 11-2, 11-9, 11-9 in the semi-finals.
The World No 47 will meet either second seed Mahesh Mangaokar or the unseeded Harinderpal Sandhu, both of India, for the title.
“Rachel was playing well and she was very sharp today while Ivan was really on fire to win the match,” national coach Kenny Foo said from Chennai.
“Both of them had good wins although Rachel did lose a bit of focus in the second game.
“Ivan, on the other hand, did really well in the opening game. He got a little lost tactically in the second and third but he recovered really well to win,” added Kenny.