KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Sanjay Jeeva pulled off the biggest victory of his career when he stunned world number 22 Abdulla Al-Tamimi of Qatar to reach the men’s quarter-finals of the 2025 New Zealand Squash Open yesterday.
World number 65 Sanjay played the game of his life to stun the eighth-seeded Qatari 10-12, 11-9, 11-6, 5-11, 11-6 in a 54-minute second-round clash at the Isaac Theatre Royal in Christchurch.
His reward for making his first-ever silverlevel quarter-final in the Professional Squash Association (PSA) Tour is a date with compatriot and third seed Ng Eain Yow, who brushed aside New Zealand’s Oliver Dunbar 11-4, 11-1, 11-3 in just 32 minutes. “I’ve not had the chance to play against many of the top 50 players.
This is the first time I’ve played against Abdulla and he’s the highest-ranked player that I’ve beaten, so far.
“Like me, he too prefers to play a lot at the front. I had to just try and keep it a bit more basic, a bit more straight.
Sometimes, when I get nervous, I would attack the front way too early and make a lot of errors,” Sanjay told the PSA website.
Meanwhile, in the all-Malaysian women’s second-round clash, world number seven S. Sivasangari had to toil for five sets before prevailing 11-5, 8-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-7 over Aira Azman. – BERNAMA
