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TODAY in
Sheffield: FINALS Day 2012
Steve in Sheffield |
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Super Seven for Egypt
in Sheffield
It was a great day for Egypt at the finals
of the Tecnifibre British Junior Open in
Sheffield, as it has been for the last few
years to be fair. With 13 of the 16
finalists wearing Egyptian colours and
representation in every final, at least five
titles were sure to be going their way
before a ball was struck.
In the event it was an impressive seven,
with Pakistan claiming one and home hopes
dashed this time around ... read all about
it ...
G13: [1]
Habiba Mohamed (Egy) bt [3/4] Amina
Yousry (Egy)
11/8, 11/8, 11/3 (23m)
B13: [5/8] Ziad Sakr (Egy) bt
Kashif Asif (Pak)
11/9, 11/9, 6/11, 11/8 (38m)
G15: [1] Nouran Gohar (Egy) bt
[3/4] Hana Ramadan (Egy)
11/7, 11/3, 11/6 (22m)
B15: [1] Israr Ahmed (Pak) bt
[2] Youssef Soliman (Egy)
11/4, 6/11, 11/8, 8/11, 11/7 (60m)
G17: [1] Yathreb Adel (Egy) bt
[2] Salma Hani (Egy)
11/5, 11/3, 11/13, 11/6 (37m)
B17: [5/8] Shehab Essam (Egy)
bt [5/8] Ashley Davies (Eng)
7/11, 13/11, 5/11, 11/9, 11/6 (71m)
G19: [1] Nour El Sherbini (Egy)
bt Kanzy El Dafrawy (Egy)
11/8, 11/8, 11/4 (25m)
B19: [1] Marwan El Shorbagy (Egy) bt
[2] Mohd Abouelghar (Egy)
11/3, 11/2, 11/7 |
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G13: [1]
Habiba Mohamed (Egy) bt
[3/4] Amina Yousry (Egy)
11/8, 11/8, 11/3
Two in
a row for Habiba
Top seed and defending champion Habiba
Mohamed made it two in a row when she
overpowered compatriot Amina Yousry
in the first final of the day, one of five
all-Egyptian affairs.
Amina, considerably smaller than her
opponent, was full of running and commitment
- reminiscent of the El Torky sisters in
style of play and demeanour on court - but
was simply outgunned by a more powerful
opponent who was fully committed to victory,
screams and fist pumps accompanying many of
her winning points.
Well played Habiba, your time will come,
Amina ...
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B13:
[5/8] Ziad Sakr (Egy) bt Kashif Asif
(Pak)
11/9, 11/9, 6/11, 11/8
One for
the "little ones"
The size difference was less extreme than in
the preceding girls' match, but still
Pakistan's Kashif Asif had a fair old size
advantage over Egypt's Ziad Sakr.
Both played much more mature squash than a
lot of the frantic, exciting early matches
over at Hallamshire, and in the early stages
it looked as though the Pakistan boy's extra
reach and power would tell as he took leads
in three of the four games.
But little Ziad has a fighting spirit to go
with his skill and speed, and was ultimately
a little more accurate and a little more
determined as he closed down those
advantages to make it two out of two for
Egypt.
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a stroke to finish |
G15: [1]
Nouran Gohar (Egy) bt [3/4] Hana
Ramadan (Egy)
11/7, 11/3, 11/6
A first
for Gohar
 Having
lost out in the 2010 U13 final, top seed
Nouran Gohar made no mistake in the Girls'
U15 final as she beat compatriot Hana
Ramadan in straight games.
The pair were evenly matched physically, but
Nouran just had the edge throughout, and was
never behind as she stretched out leads in
all three games despite Hana's best efforts.
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B15: [1]
Israr Ahmed (Pak) bt [2] Youssef
Soliman (Egy)
11/4, 6/11, 11/8, 8/11, 11/7
Ahmed
denies Egyptian clean sweep
With the top two seeds contesting the final
you'd expect a close one, and that's exactly
what we got in the Boys U15 climax.
 Two
well matched players physically and in
playing ability, Pakistan's top seed
Israr Ahmed had the slight edge on
movement over his Egyptian opponent
Youssef Soliman, who was marginally the
more powerful, which all added up to a close
match.
The first four games were shared, and at
7-all in the fifth it was anyone's. Israr
managed to work his opponent out of position
a couple of times, pumping the ball deep as
Youseff was no letted on both attempts to
get to it, then on his first match ball
forced a weak return which resulted in a
stroke and the start of the Pakistani
celebrations. |
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G17: [1]
Yathreb Adel (Egy) bt [2] Salma Hani
(Egy)
11/5, 11/3, 11/13, 11/6 (37m)
Yathreb gets her
revenge
Bear with us, this might be quite
complicated .... the fifth final of the day,
the Girls' U17, featured last year's beaten
U17 finalist who was actually the defending
U15 champion for which she was still
eligible and had beaten one of this year's
U19 finalists in the semi-final, against the
reigning U15 champion who has moved up an
age group.
The former is of course Yathreb Adel,
who so nearly beat Emily Whitlock last year,
and the latter is Salma Hani (not Salma
Hany, the U19 finalist two years ago).
What it all boils down to is that Yathreb,
the taller of the two and with much more
experience of big matches at junior and
senior level, started the favourite in this
all-Egyptian final.
And it showed at the start as she took the
first two games relatively comfortably. The
third was closer, but it wasn't until 9-all
that Salma edged ahead for the first time,
taking it 13/11 with a determined fift pump.
 A
decider looked on the cards as she went 6/2
up in the fourth, but back came Yathreb with
nine unanswered points to claim her third
BJO title.
"I finally did it," said a delighted winner.
"I was really disappointed last year not to
be able to defend my U15 title and to be so
close to winning the U17, so I was
determined to win this year."
Yathreb is still just 15, so she may defend
the title next year, but no-one will be
betting against her completing the full set
some time in the next three years ... |
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[5/8] Shehab
Essam (Egy) bt [5/8] Ashley Davies (Eng)
7/11, 13/11, 5/11, 11/9, 11/6 (71m)
Shehab
makes it seven
 The
crowd was out in force for the Boys U17
final and they were treated to a tremendous
match between 5/8 seeds Ashley Davies and
Shehab Essam.
Given that they both played 100-minute plus
semi-finals yesterday we had no right to
expect such quality and such sustained
effort, but that's what we got with both
sides of the crowd getting equally involved.
Home favourite Ashley took the first, had
one chance to make it two-nil but was
thwarted in extra points, took the lead
again and at 9-all in the fourth was just
two points away.
A 3-0 start in the decider wasn't enough as
the Egyptian roared back, taking the decider
11/6 to dash home hopes and guarantee seven
2012 title for Egypt. |
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G19: [1]
Nour El Sherbini (Egy) bt Kanzy El
Dafrawy (Egy)
11/8, 11/8, 11/4 (25m)
Sherbini strolls on
Nour El Sherbini won her fifth BJO
title with a straight-game victory over her
room-mate Kanzy El Dafrawy in the
penultimate final.
Sherbini, who won the world junior title at
13, and beat Kanzy in the U15 final in 2009,
was always ahead and despite Kanzy's
considerable efforts she couldn't close the
gap in the first two games, then saw her
opponent race away in the third.
Kanzy has been unlucky not to win a BJO
title yet, but has one more chance next year
- the bad news of course is that Nour will
still be around then too ...
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B19: [1] Marwan
El Shorbagy (Egy) bt
[2] Mohd Abouelghar (Egy)
11/3, 11/2, 11/7
Shorbagy back on the Drysdale Cup
It was a repeat of the World Junior Final
earlier in the year, and it was the same
winner as Marwan El Shorbagy added
the BJO U19 title and the Drysdale Cup to
his World Champion title.
 Mohamed
Abouelghar simply couldn't get into the
match for two games, and by the time he did
get into his stride it was just too late,
with Marwan in sight of the finishing line
he's been aiming for for a while now.
So, El Shorbagy needs to be engraved onto
the cup for a fourth time, and Marwan moves
on to join Mohamed on the senior circuit ...
Watch out world, the El Shorbagy's are here
...
 "Today
is my dad's birthday so this is a small gift
for him for everything he is for me. I am so
happy to win my last bjo, I have been
playing this tournament since I was 11 and
today was my last match ever in this great
tournament so I am very happy to leave with
the good memories.
"I had a very good preparation back in Egypt
with my brother. today I played very well,
much better than yesterday, I know how
dangerous abouelghar is so I had to keep the
ball tight!
"So many people I would like to thanks Ian
Thomas and Jonah Barrington of course. and
my coach back in Egypt mahmoud yehia and
also our national coach amir wagih.and
thanks to my mum for being here with me.
"Its a very good start for 2012 for me,
still one more junior tournament to go for
me, the world juniors in qatar so looking
forward to it."
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