Yuen Survives Yokohama Marathon

Malaysian Ivan Yuen defeated Australia's Rex Hedrick to reach the semi-finals of the Pro Squash in Japan Yokohama, the PSA World Tour Challenger 10 event at Yokohama Squash Stadium SQ-CUBE in Yokohama City, Japan.

But it took the unseeded 22-year-old from Kuala Lumpur - ranked 63 in the world - 102 minutes to justify his higher ranking over the event's No4 seed with his 6-11, 11-5, 10-12, 12-10, 11-6 quarter-final 'upset' over world No68 Hedrick.

Yuen goes on to meet Hong Kong's Leo Au for a place in the final after the No2 seed was taken the full distance by Ahmad Al-Saraj before beating the Jordanian teenager 5-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-5, 13-11 in 89 minutes.

Qualifier Yuta Fukui, the local hero ranked 169 in the world who delighted the Yokohama crowd by ousting third seed Muhd Asyraf Azan in the first round, was unable to progress further - going down 13-11, 11-7, 13-11 to India's world No66 Harinder Pal Sandhu.

Sandhu will face top seed Omar Abdel Meguid in the other semi-final after the Egyptian despatched Taiwan's James Huang 11-8, 11-8, 11-8.

Quarter-final day opened with a major press conference held in cooperation between the Japan Squash Association and Pro Squash in Japan.

"Seven TV stations and 12 newspapers were there to report on our sport, which could soon be chosen as the next sport to join the 2020 Olympic Games," said event spokesman Hiromi Komae. "The Japanese media has been giving a lot of attention to squash since it made it to the final three sports on the list."

Semi-final line-up:
[1] Omar Abdel Meguid (EGY) v Harinder Pal Sandhu (IND)
[2] Leo Au (HKG) v Ivan Yuen (MAS)