Seven Malaysians advance into BJO semi-finals

KUALA LUMPUR:Malaysia continued to display a dominating performance when seven players advanced to the semi-finals at the 2019 British Junior Open (BJO) squash tournament, in Birmingham participated by more than 750 girls and boys from 50 countries.

Based on the number of semifinalists, Malaysia were in second place behind squash superpower Egypt, who had 20 players and ahead of hosts England with five, whereby the three nations grabbed more than three-quarters of the 40 semi-final spots, according to the tournament's official website, britishjunioropen.com.

The biggest surprise for Malaysia was when the joint 5/8 seed Harith Danial Jefri upset top seed Taha Ibrahim 11-4, 11-5, 116 in the quarter-finals of the boys' Under (U) – 13 category on Friday night (early Saturday in Malaysia).

The 12-year-old would next face joint 3/4 seed Yuvraj Wadhwani of India, who defeated another Egyptian Yassin Talaat 11-9, 11-7, 11-6, tonight.

Malaysia had a good chance to secure the both boys' and girls' U-11 category when top seeds M. Nickhileswar ousted Jack Elriani of United States 11-5, 11-1, 11-9 to set an appointment with Seif Eldeen Dahshan of Egypt, while Jayden Oon also progressed after beating Kareem Fanous 9-11, 16-14, 11-8, 8-11, 11-7 in the boys category.

The girls' U-11 top seed Whitney Wilson overcame Egypt's Remass Ibrahim 11-4, 11-5, 11-2 to face another Egyptian, Shahad Hani.

In the boys' U-15, C. Ameeshanraj cruised into the semifinals after eliminating Shreyas Mehta of India to set up a clash against Pakistan's Noor Zaman.

Defending champion Aira Azman, the top seed in the girls' U-15 had to work hard to defeat Egypt's Haya Mohamed 8-11, 11-3, 11-6, 13-11 to play hosts' Torrie Malik in the semi-finals. - Bernama