KUALA LUMPUR: Men's national No 1 Ng Eain Yow exacted sweet revenge over England's Curtis Malik to storm into the semi-finals of the Irish Open in Dublin.
The world No 21 brought his best as he outplayed the world No 55 Malik 11-5, 11-5, 11-5 in the quarter-finals on Thursday.
Coming into the match, the 25-year-old Eain Yow certainly had a score to settle after suffering a shock defeat to Malik in the first round of the British Open earlier this month.
Then, the Bristol-based Eain Yow put up an uncharacteristic performance as the 23-year-old Malik claimed an 11-7, 11-9, 11-5 win.
This time, however, Eain Yow was far more prepared, and he didn't offer any opportunities to his opponent as he wrapped up the win in 33 minutes.
Prior to that, Eain Yow, who is the top seed, defeated Scotland's Rory Stewart in the second round.
The former world junior champion will play third seed Shahjahan Khan of the United States in the last four.
World No 35 Khan, who had snuffed out the challenge of Malaysia's Syafiq Kamal in the second round, got past France's Lucas Serme 8-11, 12-10, 11-8, 11-5 in 60 minutes.
In the women's event, youngster Aira Azman succeeded where her older sister, Aifa, failed by beating Egypt's Zeina Zein 10-12, 7-11, 11-7, 11-3, 11-9 in the quarter-finals.
World No 58 Zeina came into the semi-finals riding high on confidence after dumping out world No 25 and second seed Aifa with an 8-11, 9-11, 11-5, 11-5, 11-7 win in the second round.
The 18-year-old Egyptian looked to be on course to inflicting a second straight defeat on the Azman siblings after going two games up.
But the 18-year-old Aira, who booked her World Championships ticket last week, showed great resilience as she rallied to turn the tie around after 45 minutes.
For her efforts, Aira, who already has one Professional Squash Association (PSA) Tour title to her name this year, meets third seed Alexandra Fuller of South Africa in the semi-finals.
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