M’sian girls grab historic four titles
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian junior squash players made an historic outing at the 2018 British Junior Open (BJO) championship, by winning four titles for first time ever, yesterday.
Firstly, the 12-year-old K. Sehveetrraa made her BJO debut a memorable one by winning the girls’ Under–13 title. The Kedahan claimed the prestigious title after defeating Egypt’s Fayrouz Abouelkheir 11-7, 11-9, 11-9 in 26 minutes at Birmingham.
The joint third-fourth seed advanced to finals after eliminating second seed Malak Taha of Egypt 11-8, 11-5, 11-7 in the semifinals Sunday.
It was followed by the Azman double, when sisters Aira and Aifa secured their titles in the U-15 and U-17 categories, respectively.
In the girls’ U-15, Aira claimed the title after the officials disqualified Egyptian, Sana Ibrahim in the fifth set, according to the tournament’s Twitter official posting @BJOsquash.
After the first four sets ended 11-8, 11-5, 10-11, 6-11, the 13-yearold was trailing 2-4 in the last set, before the Egyptian was disqualified in the tournament.
She entered the finals after upsetting the hosts’ Katie Maliff 8-11, 11-9, 6-11, 11-5, 13-11, in the semifinals and top seed Nour Aboulmakarim of Egypt in the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, Aifa claimed her third BJO title, upsetting top seed Marina Stefani of United States 11-7, 11-5, 11-9 in just 27 minutes.
Previously, the 16-year-old had won BJO titles in the U-13 and U-15 category in 2014 and 2016 respectively.
Finally, national number two S. Sivasangari completed Malaysia’s title haul, claiming her second title in the tournament after defeating Japan’s Satomi Watanabe 12-10, 11-7, 11-9 in the girls’ U-19 category.
The 18-year-old Kedahan, who have won the U-15 title in 2014, eliminated England’s Elise Lazarus 11-8, 11-3, 13-11 in the semifinals on Saturday. Bernama