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India’s Joshna Chinappa had a two-games-to-one lead in the fourth game of her quarter-final match but sixth-ranked Egyptian Omneya Abdel Kawy proved too strong in the end at the $115k Qatar Classic on Wednesday. The fifth seed came back to register an 11-8, 9-11, 7-11, 12-10, 11-6 victory to book her berth in the semi-finals.
This was the second consecutive tournament in which Chinappa was meeting Kawy after losing to the Egyptian 0-3 in the second round of the US Open last month.
Kawy, who reached the US Open semi-finals, got off to a confident start and sealed the first game 11-8 in just five minutes. But Chinappa had upset the World No. 1 Raneem El Welily in the first round and she would not give up so easily. The Indian battled back to edge Kawy 11-9 in the second game and levelled the contest.
In the third game, scores were even till 7-7 but Chinappa, who has now reached her career-best ranking of 17, went on a trot of four consecutive points to clinch it 11-7.
The fourth game was a dramatic affair in which the Egyptian led 10-5 and held five game balls but the Indian national champion made a stunning comeback to level the game at 10-10. Kawy finally managed to hold off Chinappa’s barrage of ruthless attack to edge the hard-fought game 12-10.
The World No. 17 took a mini lead of 4-2 in the fifth game but was unable to hold on to it as the experienced Egyptian came back to equal the score at 4-4.
Chinappa’s legs began to give way, showing her fatigue, as the Indian committed a few unforced errors which turned the tide in favour of the World No. 6.
Abdel Kawy finally wrapped up the match in 50 minutes.
“I was very uncomfortable for the whole match, I never relaxed, not sure how I managed to come back!,” said Kawy after her victory.
Joshna Chinappa can still be proud of her performance at this prestigious tournament as this was the first time since 2013 that she reached the last-eight of a World Series event.
