NATIONAL squash queen S. Sivasangari made history after emerging as the champion of the inaugural edition of the London Classic Squash by knocking out world number two Hania El Hammamy of Egypt in the final stage on Monday.
The 2022 Asian Games champion, however, had to sweat before creating a surprise with a 3-2 result over El Hammamy at the gold-standard Professional Squash Association (PSA) World Tour at Alexandra Palace, London.
Sivasangari, ranked 13th in the world, started well when she managed to win 11-9 in the first set before El Hammamy came back to record an 11-5 victory in the second set.
In the third set, the control of the game turned out to be more in Sivasangari’s favour when she came back in front with a 13-11 third-set victory, but El Hammamy was not ready to wave the white flag again to close the score with a 14-12 victory.
In the deciding set, armed with the momentum of two surprising victories over world number one Nour El Sherbini from Egypt (quarter-final) and world number four Nele Gilis from Belgium (semi-final), the 25-year-old player proved that she is more than worthy of winning the championship when scoring an 11-8 victory over El Hammamy.
It was Sivasangari’s second win over El Hammamy in six meetings.
“There’s no word to summarise it but I’m very pleased with how I handled myself this week by beating the top ten players three times. They’re all really good players.
“Just happy with the way I managed to win the tournament actually,“ she said.
The victory allowed Sivasangari to take home a cash prize of US$17,598 (RM83,141).
