Finals
Andrew Cross reports
7 players completed the double by winning the Milo Junior
Open and following it up by winning the Penang Junior Open.
Both Under 19 titles were won by the same people, Megan
Craig of New Zealand defeated Tan Yan Xin 3.1 again and she
will be happy with her performances in the last two weeks.
Ali Bukhari had his toughest match in the last two weeks
when he came through a very entertaining match with Addeen
Idrakie of Malaysia. There were some long intense rallies
with both players diving around the court to retrieve balls.
Addeen won the first game 12.10 having trailed for most of
the game. The second was close all the way with but at 8.8
Addeen made two crucial errors and Bukhari levelled the
match at 1.1. Addeen started the third well taking a 4.0
lead but after some long rallies he was down 6.4. He managed
to get back close but Bukhari was always in front and took a
2-1 lead. In the fourth Addeen again started well but
Bukhari put a string of points together that Addeen was
never going to recover from and Bukhari will be happy to
have come through his toughest test.
Boys Under 15 final went the full distance again but Asim
Khan won today. Khan was leading 2.0 but Israr squared the
match at 2.2 but Khan came back in the fifth to close out
the last game 11.3.
Boys under 13 champion Mohd Farez Izwan was made to work
harder this week and having looked comfortable at 2.0
against Mohammad Khalil Alsarraj threw away the third game
and almost the fourth game. Both boys were throwing
themselves around the court showing off some brilliant
retrieving of some shots that looked like they were never
going to get.
Girls under 13 final was pretty straight forward for
Sivasangari as she scored probably the easiest win over
fierce rival Zoe Foo.
Jadeleen Lee beat Eleanor Epke in a repeat of last week’s
final, both girls cover the court well and hit the ball
really hard. Jadeleen will be happy with her win and will
look to put a serious challenge in the Asians next week.
Vanessa Raj and Ahmed Fareed were the two other players to
complete the doubles. New winners were Aifa Azman and Muhd
Hafiz Zafri who both claimed the under 11 titles.
Semis
Boys under 15 results again went against the home country
with Pakistan coming away with two wins but one semi final
went all the way.
Syafiq Kamel played a long hard match with Asim Khan and
having led 2-0 will be disappointed to have lost. It was a
tough match with nobody wanting to give an inch, any leads
were very quickly cancelled out. Khan was slightly steadier
than Syafiq and this proved to be what won him the match.
Ahmed Fareed was made to work hard in his semi final by Amir
Farhan. Farhan started very slow in the first with Fareed
advancing to a 7.1 lead but Farhan managed to work his way
back into the game and from this he went on to win the
second game. However in the third and the fourth Fareed used
his experience to take an advantage.
In the boys under 19 Ali Bukhari faced Affeeq Abedeen again
and this week Affeeq got closer to beating him than he did
last week. In the other semi final Addeen Idrakie faced
Sanjay Singh and both boys have played each other numerous
times this year, this time it was Addeen who took the match
winning in five games.
Semi Final day was very long with matches beginning at
8.30am and running all the way through the day till 6.45pm.
However at 8pm began a welcome dinner which encourages the
players from all countries to give a performance and show
case their other talents. Performances range from singing to
a lot of dancing.
Quarter-Final Day
Andrew Cross reports
Most of the days quarter finals passed 3.0 which was
completely different to last week.
Affeeq Abedeen, Addeen Idrakie and Sanjay Singh all
progressed 3.0 in the boys under 19 with top seed Ali
Bukhari being made to work slightly harder by crowd pleaser
Todd Redman who to his credit ran every ball down and never
gave up. He fully deserved the game that he won.
Boys under 17 was a little big tighter but a couple of
matches finishing in 4. The talented korean Ko Young Jo saw
off Iranian Soheil in 3 games which came as a surprise.
Puvendren continued his good form today beating Darren Chan
3.0 and again its Malaysia vs Pakistan in the semis in this
competition. Malaysia will be looking for better results
this week.
Girls under 17 produced some of the more entertaining and
closer matches. Teh Min Jie beat training partner Rachel
Arnold 3.1. Vanessa Raj was made to go the full distance
throwing away a 2.0 lead. The other semi finalists are Yong
Sue Ann and Celine Yeap.
Girls under 15 will see the home nation taking on New
Zealand. The talented Abbie Palmer causing the only upset of
the day.
Another long day tomorrow but its all worth it.
Day One in
Penang
Andrew Cross reports
The Penang Junior Open kicked off yesterday in the Nicol
David International Squash Centre with a similar field to
last week minus some countries. However all of last week's
winners except one are here and looking are looking to do
the double in their respective age groups.
Yesterday was a fairly leisurely day with most of the seeds
breezing through their matches but today was slightly
different with many experiencing tough matches.
Last week's runner up in the boys under 19 Affeeq Abedeen
was tested by Choy Ming Wei, Affeeq having been 2.0 up and
10.6 match ball up was made to slog it out in a deciding 5th
which he won 11.4. Affeeq will be looking for a better
performance tomorrow when he takes on the same boy he did
last week at the same stage.
Ng Eain Yow lost to Puvendren in three close games and will
be looking to finish 9th as he prepares an assault on the
Asian Juniors in 12 days.
The Iran Barmy army was back making full use of their vocal
chords to cheer Soheil to another win and he will be trying
to make it to the semis tomorrow.
Tomorrow is the quarters get ready for some fireworks ...
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