Subramaniam Stuns Singapore Favourite To Reach Maiden Gold Quarter-Final

Recording the best win of her career to date, Malaysian No.3 Sivasangari Subramaniam overcame top seed and world No.6 Nour El Tayeb on day three of the Vitagen Singapore Open to reach the quarter finals of a PSA World Tour Gold event for the first time.

The match was full of entertaining exchanges between the two with plenty of front court action delighting the crowd in the OCBC Arena. Despite losing to El Tayeb just seven days ago in the Malaysia Cup, Subramaniam showed no fear as she attacked the front corners and forced the in-form Egyptian into several tough movements to retrieve the ball. After claiming the opener, the unseeded Malaysian took a nail-biting tiebreak in the second game to double her lead.

Subramaniam had led 2/0 before against El Tayeb - at the 2022 Squash on Fire Open where she eventually lost in five games. The Egyptian claimed the third game after finding several outright winners and would have been hoping for a repeat result of their first encounter. The Malaysian was determined to close the match out in four games and after a successful video review at 11-10, celebrated in front of the Singapore crowd.

"I think that's the best I've played so far since I came back from injury last year. I think what made the difference today was just my consistency. I played El Tayeb a few days ago and the loss is still fresh in my mind so today what made the difference between me and her was the consistency.

"The consistency in just trying to be more patient - sometimes I tend to rush, sometimes I make too many errors. That's what happened last time so today I tried to prolong the rallies, push her, believe in my fitness and I think I did well just in terms of placing the ball and just carrying on the rally even if she's picking up a lot."

The young Malaysian will now face England's seasoned former world No.5 Sarah-Jane Perry for a spot in a second successive World Tour semi-final after the No.8 seed defeated Zeina Mickawy. The other two women's winners on day three were No.4 seed Tinne Gilis, who surrendered just 13 points as she beat Scotland's Georgia Adderley, and USA's Sabrina Sobhy, who recovered from a game down to overcome Nour Aboulmakarim.

There were no upsets in the men's draw as all four higher seeded players comfortably made their way through to the quarter finals. World No.3 Mostafa Asal defeated India's Saurav Ghosal to set up a mouth-watering clash with newly crowned US Open champion Paul Coll.

No.2 seed Diego Elias wasted no time in securing his place in the last eight after a dominant display against India's Ramit Tandon. The Peruvian will be up against dangerous Egyptian Fares Dessouky in the next round after the No.8 seed overcame England's Curtis Malik in four games.