Amman (Jordan): With a clutch of players in the semi-final, India’s hopes of a good show rose in the ongoing Asian junior individual squash championship here on Friday.
In the boys’ section, Tushar Shahani (U-17), Neel Joshi (U-15), Yuvraj Wadhwani and Parth Ambani (both U-13) are in the last four as are Sunayna Kuruvilla and Ashita Pranaya Bhengra (both U-19) besides Navmi Sharma (U-17), Yoshna Singh, Ananya Dabke (both U-15) and Yuvna Gupta (U-13) in the girls.
Nonetheless the one big disappointment for India came with the exit of second seed Abhay Singh in the boys’ U-19 section in the quarterfinal, losing to Pakistan’s Mansoor Zaman, the 5/8 seed in five games. The Indian had led by twogames before slipping. The Pakistan player won 8-11, 9-11, 11-2, 11-6, 11-9. Among the others mention has to be made of Yoshna Singh, the only unseeded among the lot to reach the semi-final. The highly promising girl made short work of a higher ranked Hong Kong player and there is hope of more from her.
The results:
Quarterfinals:
Boys: U-13:
Parth Ambani (5/8) bt Usman Nadeem (3/4) (Pak) 5-11, 2-11, 13-11,11-9, 11-6;
Yuvraj Wadhwani (2) bt Lo Chun Yu Kelvin (5/8) (HK) 11-5, 11-3, 6-11, 11-6;
Boys U-15:
Neel Joshi (2) bt Navneeth Prabhu (5/8) 11-7, 11-7, 11-3;
Boys U-17:
Tushar Shahani (2) bt Wong King Yeung (5/8) (HK) 11-5, 11-6, 11-9;
Girls: U-19:
Sunayna Kuruvilla (¾) bt Nur Alia Izzati Binti MuAnis (5/8) (Mal) 11-8, 11-5, 9-11, 13-11;
Ashita Bhengra (5/8) bt Ho Wa King (2) (HK) 11-6, 11-3, 11-5;
Girls U-17:
Navmi Sharma (5/8) bt Sanya Vats (¾) 9-11, 11-8, 11-6, 8-11, 11-9;
Girls U-15:
Ananya Dabke (¾) btWu Renee Wing (5/8) (HK) 12-10, 11-6, 11-4;
Yoshna Singh bt Wong Po Yui Kirstie (3/4) (HK) 11-5, 11-6, 11-6;
Girls U-13:
Yuvna Gupta (¾) bt V S C Sinaly (SL) 11-4, 11-4, 11-3.
