Chennai lad Velavan in maiden final

Chennai lad Velavan Senthilkumar continued his fine run to reach his maiden PSA World Tour event final at the Parkview Open in Johannesburg.
However, Velavan's fellow countryman Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu, seeded two, crashed out, losing in the semifinal to Mohammed Elsherbini of Egypt yesterday.
Velavan, who caused a huge upset, beating No.1 seed Aqeel Rehman of Austria 11-3, 11-1, 11-5 in the quarterfinals, got the better of third-seed Mark Fuller of England 12-10, 11-7, 11-9 in 46 minutes to reach the summit clash, according to information received here.
Qualifier Velavan, who won the British Junior Open earlier this year, edged the Englishman in the close opening game before taking control of proceedings.

His compatriot Harinder did not have things his way and went down 8-11, 6-11, 5-11 to Elsherbini.