MALAYSIA’S Eain Yow Ng claimed victory in a scintillating affair against Shahjahan Khan, while Belgium’s Nele Gilis-Coll battled past Ukraine’s Alina Bushma and former World No.3 Omar Mosaad powered through to the quarterfinals with a big win over No.5 seed Nathan Lake on day two of the Bronze-level 2025 Squash On Fire Open in Washington D.C.
In the 83-minute thriller between Yow Ng and Khan, the Malaysian dominated the early parts of the match, with convincing 11-8, 11-6 wins to take him just one game from the quarterfinals.
However, with the home crowd rooting for Khan, the American began an incredible resurgence, cheering and encouraging the crowd at every opportunity as he came back to push the Malaysian No.1 to a fifth game.
The decisive fifth game saw a close battle, with a lot of traffic, and huge fist-pumps from both players after every point. The American was the first to earn a match ball at 10-9, but Yow Ng showed his mettle to level the game, before pushing on to earn his own match balls, converting on the second time of asking.
Speaking after the match, the Malaysian said, “I’m just relieved, it’s so tricky nowadays. There’s so many tricky players on tour and I played [Shahjahan Khan] a couple months back in Malaysia – I always knew how tough he was going to be today.
“From 2-0 down, I think he was loosening up and had nothing to lose and he played really well, but I’m just so happy and so relieved to get through today.
“I had to dig deep today mentally. To be up two games and losing the next two, and losing all the momentum really. It’s not really so much about the scoreline, it was more about the momentum. He was really confident going for a lot of good winners so I had to really stay strong.
In the women’s draw, No.2 seed Gilis-Coll overcame unseeded Bushma after a spirited fight-back from the Ukrainian.
The Belgian took the first two games, and looked in control of the match until Bushma fought back, rallying to halve the deficit to 2-1. However, Gilis-Coll held her nerve and saw her opponent off with a clinical 11-3 fourth-game win to book her place in the quarterfinals.
Former World No.3 Mosaad fought past No.5 seed Lake in a monstrous 72-minute battle that included 76 decisions on Court 8.
The match saw a dominant start from the Englishman with an 11-2 first-game win, but the pair were neck-and-neck afterwards, trading games into a fifth.
Mosaad and Lake were never more than a two-point gap away from each other as they entered the crucial tie-break. After five match balls shared between them, it was the ‘Hammer of Thor’ who came out on top to progress to the quarterfinals.
Elsewhere, Nick Wall overcame fellow Englishman Charlie Lee in a gruelling five-setter on Court 8, and Egypt’s Nadine Shahin survived a difficult test in Ireland’s Hannah Craig to progress after four games.
The rest of the matches saw the seeded player win out in straight games, apart from the final glass-court match of the evening that saw No.3 seed Leonel Cardenas retire after the first game against Kareem El Torkey.
The quarterfinals of the Squash on Fire Open 2025 takes place tomorrow (Friday April 25), with the action getting underway at 12:00 (GMT-4). All quarterfinal matches will be streamed live on YouTube.
For more updates on the Squash on Fire 2025, visit the PSA website or follow the PSA on X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Threads, WhatsApp or LinkedIn.