No stopping Egyptians at the World junior squash championship

At the refreshing new ambience at the Express Avenue Mall on Saturday, the Egyptians’ relentless dominance was complete. Top seeds Marwan Tarek and Rowan Reda Araby started it with their fluent wins and then if there was a semblance of a  contest, the end- result did not  surprise.

Marwan in fact had it easy against his own country mate Mostafa Montaser, who had come with the hope of giving a good fight but ended completing the motions of play after a seeming hamstring pull in his right leg early in the first game. The contest fizzled out. Rowan encountered her team mate Hana Moatez and except in the first game, which could have gone either way but did not, the top seed was well in control to complete a straight-game win. 

The energy-sapping sessions followed thereafter. The ¾ seed Mostafa El Serty had his hands full against the doughty Malaysian Darren Rahul Pragasam. The Malaysian stunned his rival by tak ing the first game rather easily. But, that was not the start of an upset in the making but a rousing contest. Fiery rallies and breath-taking drops and takes by both players featured the never-say-die match that saw fortunes fluctuating. In the end in the fourth game when Mostafa went down grabbing his thigh seemingly in pain and forced the referee to come to the court to make his assessment, the worst seemed the prognosis. But Mostafa bounced back and bagged the final game. 

Similar was the fight between two other Egyptians Jana Shiha and her lower seed Farida Mohamed. Five games of ebb and flow saw Jana managing to clinch the match. Farida lost but won a big round of cheers for her gutsy display. Ironically, the girl who had earned so much attention for her exploits, Sneha Sivakumar of Singapore, failed to go further. With her Chennai connection given so much publicity, the interest on her was high but the ¾ seed Lucy Turmel of England was far stronger in technique and strategy to end the dream run.

 Mostafa Assal, second seed in the men’s juniors made easy work of Mexico’s Leonel Cardenas, moving into the semi-finals in straight sets. He won with a scoreline of 1210 11-7 11-9. Women’s juniors’ second seed Hania El Hammamy to had a much smoother sail into the last four as she got the better of the United States of America’s Marina Stefanoni. In the last match of the action-packed day, the Egyptian won 11-2 11-4 11-7 against the American.

Quarter-finals: Men:  Marwan Tarek (Egypt) beat Mostafa Montaser (Egypt) 118, 11-1, 11-5; Omar El Torkey (Egypt) beat Nick Wall (England) 11-6, 11-3, 11-7; Mostafa El Serty (Egypt) beat Darren Rahul Pragasam (Malaysia) 4-11, 13-11, 6-11, 12-10, 11-6; Mostafa Assal (Egypt) beat Leonel Cardenas (Mexico) 12-10 11-7 11-9

Women: Rowan Reda Araby (Egypt) beat Hana Moataz (Egypt) 12-10, 11-6, 11-3; Jana Shiha (Egypt) beat Farida Mohamed (Egypt) 7-11, 11-6, 11-5, 7-11, 15-13; Lucy Turmel (England) beat Sneha Sivakumar (Singapore) 11-5, 11-8, 11-8; Hania El Hammamy (Egypt) beat Marina Stefanoni (United States) 11-2 11-4 11-7