Joshna goes down fighting to Gohar

Bengaluru, November 16: India's Joshna Chinappa gave a tough fight before going down 8-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-9, 1-11 to Egypt's defending champion Nourab Gohar in the second round of the Professional Squash Association (PSA) World Series Hong Kong Open.

Joshna, who had stormed into the second round with a hard-fought victory against Canadian qualifier Hollie Naughton, found Gohar a tough not nut to crack.

In the 50-minute encounter at the Hong Kong Squash Centre glass courts, the world No.14 put her best efforts and twice came back from the brink to take the match to the decider where her seventh-seeded rival had the last laugh.

Gohar was really made to work hard for her victory as the Indian No.1 forced her all the way to five games.

It's all @NouranGohar in the fifth : [7] Nouran Gohar (Egy) 3-2 [11] Joshna Chinappa (Ind) 11/8, 7/11, 11/8, 9/11, 11/1 (50m) pic.twitter.com/i31UpeQadp

— HK Squash (@HKsquash) November 16, 2017

The victory over Joshna helped Gohar set up a quarterfinal clash with compatriot and world No.1 Nour El Sherbini who quelled the challenge of Australia's Donna Urquhart 11-6, 10-12, 11-3, 11-5 in another second-round clash.

Meanwhile, England's world No.4 Laura Massaro came through a tricky tie with United States No.1 Olivia Blatchford to book her place in the last eight with a 11-8, 8-11, 12-10, 11-5 victory.

She will face world No.16 Tesni Evans in the last eight after the latter claimed a 12-10, 12-10, 11-9 win over England's Alison Waters to become the first Welsh woman ever to reach a PSA World Series quarterfinal.