Pakistan’s Mahnoor Ali stormed into the Under-13 final at the US Junior Open after defeating China’s Zinyuan Yin in the semi-finals in Philadelphia on Monday night.
Ali thrashed Yin 11-7, 11-5 before losing 5-11 in the third set. The 11-year-old put up a strong fourth set to win the match 12-10 and advance to the finals, where she will play Egypt’s Linda Elsayed on Tuesday.
Elsayed was relentless against USA’s Alice Huang, taking the win in straight sets 11-9, 11-7, 11-9.
Ali admitted that she had strong competition and made more mistakes than she would have liked, “but I’ll try not to repeat those in the final,” she said in a video message to Dawn.com.
Earlier in the quarter final, which was also on Monday, Ali lost the first set 9-11 to USA’s Kaylee Li before defeating the American 11-9, 11-9, 11-8.
The current Asian No 2 has remained undefeated throughout the tournament, which has seen almost 1,200 athletes from more than 40 countries.
Ali thanked her sponsors, the BARD (Bilquis and Abdul Razzak Dawood) Foundation for supporting her all year.
