Peerless Pharaohs
Clean sweep by egyptians at British Junior Open
PETALING JAYA: Egypt have once again demonstrated their super surge in squash after making a clean sweep of 10 titles at the British Junior Open in Birmingham on Sunday.
Egypt were so strong that they didn’t need the services of two-time world junior champion Amin Orfi to ensure the girls’ Under-19 title which went to her compatriot Fayrouz Abouelkheir who defeated Caroline Fouts of the United States 11-8, 11-3, 12-10.
India’s Anahat Singh, the 15-year-old who has already played at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, appeared as the only player capable of challenging the Egyptians.
Despite her experience on the senior stage, Anahat lost 11-7, 11-13, 10-12, 11-5, 9-11 to Nadien Elhammamy.
Malaysia’s Haarlein Tan was the only non-egyptian player to reach the semi-finals in the girls’ Under-15 event but she lost to Rama Al Naggar in five sets.
Egypt’s other winners in the girls events are Malika El Karasky (Under-15), Layan Moustafa (Under-13) and Serein Mohamed (Under-11) while Mohamed Zakaria (Under-19), Youssef Salem (Under-17), Philopater Saleh (Under-15), Malek Helmy (Under-13) and Adam Ragab (Under-11) were victorious in the boys’ events.
Malaysia’s best performer in the girls’ Under 18 was K. Sehveetraa as she reached the last eight but was beaten by Abouelkheir.
Sehveetraa had beaten Abouelkheir to win the Under-13 title in 2019 but the Egyptian has moved a notch above.
Malaysia were considerably weakened as last year’s World Junior runner-up Aira Azman is overaged for the girls’ Under-19 category while C. Ameeshenraj had also ended his junior involvement.
The year 2019 marked Malaysia’s best effort in the British Juniors where they clinched four titles, all in the girls’ events, through S. Sivasangari (Under-19), Aifa Azman (Under-17), Aira Azman (Under-15) and Sehveetraa (Under-13).
Malaysia’s last success in the British Junior was through Haarlein in 2020 where she secured the Under-13 crown.