KUALA LUMPUR, (Stadiumastro) - It would seem that nothing can stop Azlan Iskandar's march in the CIMB Kuala Lumpur Open as the Malaysian shocked Stewart Boswell to enter the semi-finals on Thursday.
Azlan rode high on the support of the home crowd at the Berjaya Times Square to surge past the third seed Englishman 11-1, 11-8, 11-5 to book his berth in the top four.
It was a display of sheer perfection in the glass court, as Azlan had came all the way from the qualifiers, beating third seed Adrian Grant of England in the first round to come this far.
The Sarawakian is just one step from reaching the finals, but will need to be at his best again when he face World No 2 Karim Darwish of Egypt.
"It is going to be an interesting game tomorrow," said Azlan in a Bernama interview.
In the other men's semi-final match, Ong Beng Hee endured a five-set battle to beat fourth seed Mohamed El Shorbagy of Egypt to book his semi-final ticket.
Beng Hee was undeterred despite losing the first two sets, and managed to seal the remaining three to round up a final score of 7-11, 8-11, 16-14, 11-4, 11-8.
"He (Darwish) put a lot of pressure in the first two sets but when I won the third game, it gave me confidence and kept pushing him back. Obviously, with the support from the crowd and Jamshed (coach), I was able to overcome him," said Beng Hee to Bernama.
The Penangite have already achieved his goal of making it into the semi-finals to face World No 1 Ramy Ashour of Egypt and will be fired up to test the skills of the best men's squash player.
In the women's competition, Nicol David defeated Australian Kasey Brown in three sets to book her semi-final spot.
Brown gave Nicol a fight at first, pushing the Malaysian to fight point for point to in the first two sets.
But in the third, Brown seemed to have ran out of steam as Nicol pounced on the opportunity to rush to collect six points in a row before sealing the deal 12-10, 14-12, 11-1.
"It was indeed a tough match against Kasey (Brown). After the Chennai Open, I knew that she would came out with something to fight back for. I was expecting that and I knew it was not going to be easy," said Nicol to Bernama.
Nicol will relish the chance to settle the scores against her semi-final opponent, who will be Alison Waters of England.
"We had some good matches before. Hopefully, I can bring my game up and get my focus right. I am just looking foward to tomorrow's semifinal," Nicol added on her semi-final match.
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