Following their success in the World Junior Team Championships in Chennai
last month, Pakistan’s Under 19 boys continue to impress, with top seed
Safeerullah Khan and unseeded Khalid Khan progressing to the semi-finals.
Top seeds Safeerullah Khan of Pakistan moved into the finals of the British Junior Open U19 event in Sheffield, England, where he will face Holland's Dylan Bennett.
EGYPT & PAKISTAN SHINE IN BRITISH JUNIOR OPEN WHILE ENGLAND LAMENTS
While Egypt and Pakistan claimed all but one of the titles in the British
Junior Open Squash Championships in Sheffield, hosts England failed to field
a finalist in any of the eight events for the first time for more than 20
years.
England’s only top seed Myriam Hardy, favourite in the Women’s U13 event,
crashed out at the semi-final stage to the eventual winner - and, in the
semi-finals of the Women’s U15 event, second-seeded British U15 & U17
champion Rachel Willmott lost for the second time in two years to Egypt’s
Shahenda Osama.
Pakistan and Egypt shared the glory in the U19 events: Egypt’s Omneya Abdel
Kawy, still only 17 but now in her second year as a senior world top twenty
player, coolly dismissed Australia’s 3/4 seed Kasey Brown 9-1 9-3 9-1 in the
women’s final to collect her third successive U19 title and her sixth
consecutive British Junior Open title since first reaching the U13 final in
1997.
Dutchman Dylan Bennett had two matchballs to become the only European winner in Sheffield, but Pakistani favourite Safeerullah Khan, a member of Pakistan’s world championship-winning squad in India last month, ultimately prevailed 9-0 0-9 9-7 8-10 10-9 to win the Drysdale Cup in one of the most exciting Men’s U19 finals on record. Khan won the U17 title in 2002 and repeated his victory over Bennett in the world individual quarter-finals in Chennai.
India’s Joshna Chinappa followed her sensational defeat of top-seed Sarah
Badr in the Women’s U17 semi-finals - the Egyptian’s first British Open loss
in four years - by defeating Australia’s Donna Urquhart 9-6 9-5 9-7 in the
final, thus providing India’s first ever British Junior Open triumph.
The all-Pakistani Men’s U17 final was a repeat of the 2002 U15 climax - and
revenge for runner-up Yasier Butt who this time beat Farhan Mehboob 9-7 9-2
10-8 to claim his first title in Sheffield.
There were all-Egyptian finals in both the U15 events - second seed Tarek
Momen upsetting favourite Omar Mosaad Abou Zeid 7-9 9-7 10-9 9-6 in the Men’s
final in a repeat of the 2001 U13 final, and top seed Raneem El Welily
beating Shahenda Osama 9-1 9-6 9-1 in the Women’s final to register her third
successive title in her fifth British Junior Open final in a row.
Pakistan and Egypt shared the U13 trophies - Pakistan’s No2 seed Amir Khan
upsetting Egyptian favourite Ahmed Havas 9-1 9-2 9-1 in the men’s climax, and
Aliaa Balbaa triumphing 9-1 9-3 9-4 over fellow Egyptian 3/4 seed Heba Alaa
Anwar to collect the women’s title.
Yes, it happens almost every time. 