NEW DELHI: Seasoned Indian squash player Joshna Chinappa defeated Egyptian Nardine Garas in straight games to storm into the semi-final of the Japan Open PSA Challenger event in Yokohama, Japan.

The 39-year-old former women's world No 10 beat Egyptian second seed Garas 11-8, 15-13, 11-9 in the quarter-final on Saturday.

Joshna will now take on fourth seed Egyptian Rana Ismail in the last-four stage.

Earlier, the former Asian champion and world doubles champion defeated French fifth seed Lauren Baltayan 11-7,11-4, 11-9 in the second round, and Malaysian Anrie Goh 11-6, 11-6, 11-6 in the opening round.

Elsewhere, India's Abhay Singh made a winning start at the Silicon Valley Open squash but his compatriots Velavan Senthilkumar and Ramit Tandon lost their opening matches at the PSA Gold event in Redwood City, USA.

World No. 29 Abhay beat Karim El Hammamy of Egypt 12-10, 11-7, 13-11, and will meet French world No. 9 and fifth seed Victor Crouin in the second round of the USD 130,500 tournament on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Senthilkumar lost to Egypt's Kareem El Torkey 3-11, 5-11, 9-11, while Tandon went down to Balazs Farkas in a five-game thriller which the Hungarian won 12-10, 5-11, 5-11, 11-9, 11-8.