Tauranga(New Zealand): India’s Abhay Singh continued to march ahead in the ongoing WSF-World junior squash championship being held here. The top junior, seeded 5/8 made it to the quarterfinal on Friday after a battling 3-1 win over Egyptian 9/16 seeded Mohamed Elshamy in the fourth round. Abhay won 10-12, 11-7, 13-11,11-8.

However the other surviving Indian, Adhiya Raghavan went down fighting to another Egyptian 5/8 seeded Aly Hussein in five games, 11-3, 8-11, 11-7, 4-11, 11-3.

Abhay had an initial scare but regained touch before long. He had a tough time in the third game as the Egyptian fought point for point. Though the Indian reached the game-ball point first, Elshamy fought back to equalise at 10-10. It was close there but Abhay managed to wriggle out and the fourth game became lot easier to close out.

Tauranga (New Zealand): The top two junior boys, Abhay Singh and Adhitya Raghavan, both seeded 5/8 kept their seedings intact by progressing to the fourth round on Thursday in the individual compeititions phase of the WSF-World junior squash championship being held here.

Abhay was a picture of steadiness as he outclassed his US opponent Harrison Gill. The American did make a game bid in the later part of the contest, even extended the Indian in the third game but that seemed just an aberration. Similar was the effort of Adhitya who downed a Korean In Woo Lee in four games. However Yash Fadte’s enterprise ended at thehands of Egypt’s ¾ seed Manwan Tarek. In the the girls’ section all the three _ 13/16 seed Akanksha Salunkhe, Sunayna Kuruvilla and Aishwarya Bhattacharya _fell by the wayside. But Aishwarya received commendation for the fight she showed against the ¾ seeded Egyptian Nada Abbas. The Indian looked good to cause an upset as she clawed back from a game down to post a 2-1 lead and ready for more. But there the complexion changed dramatically in favour of Nada.

Boys: (third round): Abhay Singh (5/8) bt Harrison Gill (USA) 11-6, 11-3, 14-12; Manwan Tarek (¾) (Egy) bt Yash Fadte 11-5, 11-4, 11-6; Adhitya Raghavan (5/8) bt In Woo Lee (Kor) 11-5, 11-6, 4-11, 11-9

Girls: Nada Abbas( ¾ )(Egypt) bt Aishwarya Bhattacharya 11-4, 8-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-3; Jana Shiha (Egy) bt Akanksha Salunkhe (13/16) 11-6, 11-8, 11-4; Aifa Azman (13/16) (Mal) bt Sunyna Kuruvilla 11-4, 11-6, 11-6

Chennai: India is sending a 12-player team (boys and girls) for the WSF- World junior squash championship to be held in Tauranga city in New Zealand from July 19 to 29. The Indian team is leaving on Sunday.

The Championship this year will witness individual competition for boys and girls followed by the team event for girls only. At the last championship held in Bielska-Biala, Poland, Pakistan had won the boys’ title and Eain Yow Nq of Malaysia was the individual boys winner. The girls winner was Egypt’s Nouran Gohar. From India’s point of view, Velavan Senthilkumar’s quarterfinal finish was the highlight. He also helped India finish 6^th overall in the team event. India’s best in the junior championship has been a third place finish by the girls in 2009 in Chennai.

This time the preparation for this mega event turned a little high end with SRFI deciding to send ten members of the side to Egypt for a two-week specialised training. Accordingly six boys _Abhay Singh, Aditya Raghavan, Aryaman Adik, Tushar Shahani, Veer Chotrani, Yash Fadte (all boys), Akanksha Salunkhe, Sunayna Kuruvilla, Aishwarya Bhattacharya and Ashita Pranaya Bhengra (all girls who play both team and individuals) were the benificiaries. “Truly enriching and intensive training,” formed the reaction from Abhay and Sunayna, the two leading figures in the team. Two other girls, Samita Shekar and Sanya Vats are also members of the Indian side to play only in the individual competitions.

A feature of this side, said National Coach Cyrus Poncha was that there were three players _ Tushar, Veer and Yash_ who were still U-17 players and showed the pluck and skill to get selected to the next higher-age category. “The significance is the reflection of the depth of talent and also the fact that these three players will still be around for the next edition of the Championship scheduled in Chennai next year,” said Poncha.

The officials who will be with the team are Coaches Achraf El Karargui, Deepak Mishra and Ms Surbhi Misra.