KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian squash player Yasshmita Jadish Kumar continued her giant-killing run to reach the third round of the Egypt Open in Cairo on Sunday.
World No. 62 Yasshmita, who upset Egypt's world No. 34 Marian Metwally in the first round, came back from the brink of defeat to stun Egypt's world No. 20 Farida Mohamed 3-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-9 in 53 minutes.
It was the first time Yasshmita, who sacrificed two years of her business management studies in England to train in Cairo, beat a player ranked in the world top 20.
Yasshmita, who trains under coaches Andrew Shoukry and Ahmed Faragallah, will next face Japan's world No. 7 Satomi Watanabe.
Yasshmita said: "I'm honestly speechless. I don't know what to say. I cannot believe I won that. After that first game, she absolutely chopped me, I think it was 11-3 or something, and I was so confused. I was like, 'oh my gosh, what is happening?'
"My coaches then gave me some good points, and then I slowly eased into the match, finding my lengths, my shots; I was more on target. From 2-0 down, winning it 3-2. I don't know what to say!
"Farida was whacking the ball so hard and I couldn't see the ball, so my coaches told me to slow down the pace a bit. Obviously, after the first and second sets, the ball became more dead, and I think it was a bit to my advantage. I made use of it. I started chopping it in and I felt really good after that. I felt pretty confident after that third set.
"If I can beat Farida today, I don't know what else I can do, so I'm just going to give it my all, have a good warm-down, rest and think about tomorrow later," Yasshmita told PSA World Tour.
Meanwhile, Asian Games champion S. Sivasangari came back from a game down to beat Egypt's world No. 190 Nadia Mahmoud 9-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-5 in the second round.. She will face world No. 12 Nele Gilis of Belgium next.
Asian Games gold medallist Ng Eain Yow overcame Scotland's world No. 31 Greg Lobban 11-8, 11-7.
The only Malaysian casualty was world No. 22 Rachel Arnold who was upset by Egypt's world No. 55 Ruqayya Salem 12-14, 11-9, 14-12, 11-4.
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