Egypt’s Aly Abou Eleinen and Malaysia’s Sivasangari Subramaniam became Hong Kong Football Club Open champions after they claimed respective wins over men’s No.3 seed Eain Yow Ng and women’s No.4 seed Amina Orfi.
Eleinen captured his maiden PSA World Tour title after playing some superb squash to oust Eain Yow by an 11-6, 5-11, 11-7, 11-7 scoreline.
World No.19 Eleinen started brightly, finding his length and putting work into the legs of his opponent to take a one game advantage. And despite Eain Yow rallying to claim the second, the No.2 seed remained unfazed, playing a methodical game that proved hard to break down.
Some of the brutal movements that the Malaysian had been forced into earlier in the match started to catch up with him in the latter stages of the third, with Eleinen retaking the lead and subsequently sealing the victory after just over an hour of play.
“I feel unbelievable,” he said after the match. “I’ve been putting in a lot of work over the last year and a half and everything is starting to click right now.
“Like I’ve said all week, starting well, finding my length and getting to the front is so crucial. Taking advantage of the lively ball here is so crucial.
“Yow loves stepping up and volleying, so I had to make sure that I got the ball to the back of the court, and I think I was the one who was actually making him move more.
“We’ve got the Hong Kong Open next week and it’s the final event of the year and I’m really excited to end on a high note.”
World No.22 Subramaniam, who had already scored upsets over No.3 seed Sabrina Sobhy and No.2 seed Sarah-Jane Perry en route to the final, was in scintillating form yet again to end the run of 16-year-old Amina Orfi and claim her 13th title on tour.
The Malaysian came out with an effective game plan right from the off, taking the pace away from Orfi through her use of angles and height on the front wall.
No.4 seed Orfi found avenues of success through her notorious power-hitting and superb length, but the sublime racket work of Subramaniam won the day, with the Malaysian coming away with the win in 39 minutes, by an 11-9, 11-8, 11-5 scoreline.
After the match, Subramaniam said: “I’m really, really happy. Throughout this week I have played really well, and as I have progressed through each match I have played better and better.
“I think I got my game plan right and I’m really happy at winning today, especially 3-0 against a really dangerous player. Orfi plays a really fast pace and hits the ball really hard most of the time, so for me I know that I can’t keep up with that pace, so I just tried to break it down a bit, slow the match down and mix it up.
“I’m pretty emotional right now. After everything that happened last year, I want to celebrate and I want to scream sometimes. Deep down I’m just really proud of how far I have come and I just hope to keep going.”