Shocking as Malaysia exit in the quarter-finals of world juniors

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s challenge in the boys’ team event of the World Junior Squash Championships in Chennai, India ended abruptly in the quarter-finals.

Malaysia, the fourth seeds were upset by sixth seeds Czech Republic 2-0 yesterday.

Siow Yee Xian played the first tie and lost to Ondrej Vorlicek 4-11, 10-12, 11-6, 2-11 in 45 minutes.

Expectation was on Malaysia’s top national junior player Darren Rahul Pragasam to beat Viktor Byrtus to level the score.

But the Negri Sembilan player was a let down as he lost 12-10, 9-11, 1-11, 6-11 in 45 minutes.

Czech Republic will face top seeds Egypt in the semi-finals.

Defending champions Egypt defeated Hong Kong 2-0 in another quarter-final.

Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia (SRAM) director S. Maniam was disappointed with the Malaysian team’s performance.

“I never expected them to lose to Czech Republic as I don’t think that we (Malaysia) have ever played them in the World Junior championships.

“I was expecting the boys’ team to reach the semi-finals, which was the target set by us,” said Maniam.

“I am also disappointed with Aifa (Azman, who was seeded joint third-fourth seed) performance in the individual event. I was expecting her to reach the semi-finals but she lost in the third round.

“We have go back to the drawing board to check what we need to do for next year’s World Junior Championships, which we will be hosting in Kuala Lumpur,” said Maniam.