Chan Charges Into Florida Quarters

Hong Kong's Chan Sin Yuk upset No.7 seed Nada Abbas to reach her first ever PSA World Tour Gold event quarter-final on day two of the SmartCentres Kinetic Florida Open in Boynton Beach.

The 21-year-old is ranked at No.51 in the world, 34 places below her Egyptian opponent, but defied those rankings to emerge victorious in five games.

After losing a lengthy tie break 16-14 in the first game, Chan controlled much of the next two games to take a 2/1 lead, but a change in ball handed the advantage back to Abbas to start the fourth, with the Egyptian racing into a 6-1 lead.

Chan responded in style, though, levelling at 6-6 before giving herself a match ball at 10-9 up.

She was unable to convert and Abbas would send the match into a decider moments later, but undeterred, Chan continued to be aggressive at the front of the court - a tactic that served her well throughout - and ran away with game five to book her spot in the last eight.

"I'm really happy to be through," said the US-based 21-year-old later.

"This was my first time playing against Nada but I've always known that she's a really good player, so before the game I reminded myself many times that I had to take every point seriously, and give no easy points away.

"She did that better than me in the first game so she took the first, and I had a match ball in the fourth and was really gutted not to have converted it, but I'm really happy with how I did in the fifth game.

"I've always attacked a lot to the front, but today I was not thinking about winning with the drop shots, but just to play to the space, and that worked well."

Chan was joined in the last eight by both the men's and women's top seeds, with Nour ElSherbini and Diego Elias recording 3/0 wins in the evening session.

Women's world No.1 ElSherbini cruised to her victory over fellow Egyptian Salma Eltayeb in just 20 minutes, while Elias - who trains at the Kinetic Indoor Racquet Club where this event is being held - saw off the challenge of England's Nick Wall.

Speaking after her win, ElSherbini said: "I'm happy with the way I played, happy with the first win of the year and looking forward to this week.

"It was actually the first time I've ever played Salma. She's a young, up-and-coming player so you don't quite know what her game is or how she's playing, but I know she's very dangerous and has very good hands, so I had to be ready from the first point."

Joel Makin and Olivia Weaver were among the other winners on day two, beating Leandro Romiglio and Nicole Bunyan respectively.