Malliff & Zakaria End Home Hopes As Singapore Open Gets Underway

England's Katie Malliff and Egypt's Mohamad Zakaria and got the better of Singapore national champions Wai Yhann Au Yeong and Samuel Kang on day one of the 2024 Vitagen Singapore Open at the OCBC Arena.

Rising star Zakaria - the 17-year-old who already boasts five PSA World Tour titles - defeated Kang by an 11-2, 11-3, 11-3 scoreline.

Kang is a multiple Singapore national champion but was unable to halt the crisp hitting and accuracy of the Egyptian, who moves on to play Frenchman Sebastien Bonmalais for a place in the quarter-finals of the PSA Gold-level event.

"It's my first time in Singapore and I love it already, it's quite different from other countries in Asia," said Zakaria afterwards.

"He has done a lot in his life already, he went to Princeton, and I watched a couple of his matches before I came here because I needed to know how he plays. He has good length and I think he has won the nationals here eight times, so he's doing some good work here. I played a good match, I was focused on trying to make him move and I think I did well.

"I need to use these years when people are too nervy playing against a younger player because I'm not going to be the younger one forever, so I need to go on court and hunt for every win. These are the best years because I always have a bit of a relief when I play because I am the young player, but I also want to win, so it balances out."

Meanwhile, Malliff secured a 3/0 win against seven-time Singapore national champion Wai Yhann Au Yeong, winning 11-8, 11-3, 11-9 in 28 minutes.

The world No.33 will play No.8 seed Tomato Ho for a place in the last eight.

Malliff said: "This is my first time in Singapore, it's a great event and I saw a lot of this event on social media last year, so I've been looking forward to it.

"I've never played Wai Yhann before, but I've seen her play a bit. She's really skilful at the front, so I couldn't leave the ball too much there. I tried to get the ball to the back, especially on these courts because you've got to put a lot on it. She's got a good game and she's a great player.

"I'm looking forward to it [against Ho in the next round]. She beat me last time, so hopefully I can do better this time."