Marche Marches On In KL

French qualifier Gregoire Marche produced his second upset in 24 hours when he beat South African Stephen Coppinger to reach the semi-finals. After ousting third seed Cameron Pilley in the opening round, the 21-year-old world No72 from Aix-en-Provence dug deep to overcome Coppinger, ranked 33 places higher, 11-7, 11-5, 11-8 in 39 minutes.

Marche will now face his toughest opponent in KL, the event’s top seed Karim Darwish.  The world No3 from Egypt moved one match away from his second successive final with a hard-fought 11-8, 11-8, 11-5 victory over India’s top-ranked player Saurav Ghosal.

Azlan Iskandar made sure of home interest in the last four of the men’s event when he beat Pakistan’sAamir Atlas Khan 14-12, 11-6, 11-2. 

The fourth seed from KL, winner of the title in 2003 and 2006, will now face second seed Mohamed El Shorbagy in a bid to avenge his compatriot Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan’s defeat by the Egyptian.

Unseeded Adnan, who like Iskandar is also from KL, went down 11-9, 12-10, 11-7 to El Shorbagy in his first appearance in the championship’s quarter-finals.

Malaysian interest rides high in the women’s event where defending champion Nicol David edged closer to her eighth successive final.  The world number one from Penang repeated her 2010 Commonwealth Games semi-final win over Australian Kasey Brown when she beat the sixth seed 11-5, 11-4, 6-11, 11-5.

Title-holder David now faces England’s Alison Waters, the No3 seed from London who is making her WISPA Tour comeback in KL after Achilles surgery following the Commonwealth Games. 

Waters was taken the full distance by fifth seed Rachael Grinham before beating the 2001 champion 12-10, 12-10, 8-11, 5-11, 13-11 in a 65-minute marathon.

There was a notable upset in the lower half of the draw where Hong Kong’s unseeded Annie Au took out France’s eighth seed Camille Serme 11-3, 15-13, 9-11, 11-6.

Now in her the last four for the first time, 22-year-old Au will take on Madeline Perry, the No7 seed from Ireland who despatched Hong Kong qualifier Joey Chan 11-7, 12-10, 11-5.