Malaysia’s magnificent seven

SEVEN Malaysians swept into the fourth round of the World Junior Squash Championships in Tauranga, New Zealand yesterday to give hope of finding a successor to last year’s champion Ng Eain Yow.

Joint-fifth seeds S. Sivasangari and Andrea Lee led a procession of national juniors to the last-16 of the girls’ competition where they were joined by Chan Yiwen, Zoe Foo and Aifa Azman.

Sivasangari defeated New Zealand’s Anika Jackson 11-4, 112, 11-5 to set up a meeting with Zoe, who ousted Canada’s Charlotte Orcutt 11-5, 11-2, 11-8.

Andrea comes up against England’s Elise Lazarus after seeing off American Grace Doyle 11-5, 118, 11-3 while Aifa downed India’s Sunayna Kuruvilla 11-4, 11-6, 11-6 for a fourth round clash against second seed Zeina Mickawy of Egypt.

Yiwen faces a daunting match against top seed Hania El Hammamy of Egypt today after overcoming Kaitlyn Watts of New Zealand 11-4, 11-7, 11-4.

In the boys’ third round, Ong Sai Hung rallied from two games down and the brink of elimination to oust Egypt’s Ahmed Elmashed 3-11, 5-11, 13-11, 11-5, 11-4 to set up a last-16 clash against top seed Youssef Ibrahim.

Darren Rahul Pragasam advanced with an 11-6, 9-11, 11-9, 11-8 win over American Tiber Worth but Hafiz Zhafri Abdul Harif and Danial Nor Haqiem Shahrul Izham were knocked out.

England’s joint-fifth seed Kyle Finch accounted for Hafiz 11-6, 113, 11-4 while Danial fell 11-4, 11-3, 11-4 to joint third-seed Victor Crouin of France, the European junior champion who faces Darren in the fourth round.

National schools champion Siow Yee Xian exited in the second round on Wednesday following a 11-4, 13-11, 11-6 defeat by Belgium’s Sanjay Jeeva. Devinder Singh