KUALA LUMPUR: Noor Ainaa Amani Ampandi is certainly on a roll.
The 21-year-old national squash player reached her third final in as many months after charging through at the RC Pro Series in St Louis, United States.
Having reached a career high No 73 in the world, the KL lass was bang on form as she dispatched Egypt's Haya Ali 11-9, 11-8, 12-14, 11-9 in the semi-finals on Friday.
In a rematch of the SRFI Open final in India earlier this month, in which Ainaa won, the youngster gained the upper hand with a 2-0 lead despite playing with a broken racquet.
She had three matchball opportunities to close off the match in straight games, but she couldn't convert, and Haya fought back to take the third game 14-12.
Nevertheless, Ainaa's consistency and grit came through as she controlled the fourth game to seal the win after 37 minutes.
The win means Ainaa has now won 15 of her last 16 matches, making her one of the most in-form Malaysian player at the moment.
Besides taking the SRFI title, she also won the HK Challenge Cup in March and was unbeaten at the World Championships qualifiers, sealing her maiden ticket to the world meet in the process.
Her only blemish so far was a second- round defeat to world No 35 Hana Moataz of Egypt at the Kinetic Challenger last week.
Ainaa next meets fourth seed Salma Eltayeb of Egypt, who dispatched compatriot Kenzy Ayman 11-6, 6-11, 11-9, 11-9, for the title.
"It was a really good win today, and since winning in Hong Kong, I've built up a lot of confidence, which has helped me throughout these few tournaments," said Ainaa.
"Of course, it was also an intense match today, and I am a little disappointed that I didn't close it up in three games despite having three matchball opportunities.
"It was also nail-biting in the fourth as despite having a 6-2 lead, I was struggling to hang on to it.
"I am thankful though that I managed to get through with the win, although Haya deserves some credit as she played so much better since our last meeting.
"Having gotten into another final, I'm excited with my progress so far, and I can't wait to compete at the world meet next week," added Ainaa.
It was, however, a disappointing outing for the Malaysian men in the competition as the trio of Ivan Yuen, Addeen Idrakie and Syafiq Kamal all couldn't progress beyond the last eight.
Ivan lost in the first round to Pakistani Noor Zaman while Addeen and Syafiq lost in the quarter-finals to top seed Cesar Salazar of Mexico and second seed Juan Camilo Vargas of Colombia respectively.
