KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's World No. 52 Ainaa Amani's hopes of winning the US$25,000 Hamilton Open squash were dashed by France's top seed Melissa Alves in the final in Lancaster, the United States, yesterday (Oct 18).
Fourth seed Ainaa started off well by winning the first two sets 11-4, 11-2, but couldn't maintain her pace and lost the next three 11-3, 11-5, 11-4 to the world No. 29 French player in 35 minutes.
In the semi-final, Ainaa created the biggest win of her career by stunning Wales' world No. 22 Tesni Murphy 11-6, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9.
Ainaa, 22, who won the ACE Challenger Cup in Kuala Lumpur last month, said she is overall happy with her performance.
"It was a bonus to win against Tesni, who is 30 rungs higher than me. And it was actually my biggest win to date in a PSA tournament.
"I expect to break into the top 50 in the world for the first time by next week after my performance in the Hamilton Open," added the national No. 5.