It’s a pretty decent return for the Malaysian juniors at the world meet hosted on home grounds.
The girls’ team of Aifa Azman, Chan Yiwen, Ooi Kah Yan and Noor Ainaa Amani Ampandi lived up to expectations by finishing second behind Egypt.
It was a 2-0 defeat to Egypt in the final but the Malaysian girls really took the fight to defending champions and were just that close in taking it to a deciding rubber match.
It’s definitely target achieved for the team and the focus is now to rebuild a team for the next two years.
In the individual event, Aifa was the best finisher as she reached the semi-finals before losing a five-set thriller to Egypt’s Jana Shiha.
It was one of Aifa’s best showing of the year and she was just a little unfortunate not to capitalise on her chances against Jana.
An individual bronze is still a very good result for the 17-year-old who is still eligible for the next world juniors.
Yiwen also fared well as she reached the quarter-finals before bowing out to a physically strong Farida Mohamed of Egypt.
In the fourth round, Kah Yan met her match in a tough encounter against England’s Elise Lazarus while Aira Azman was a surprise top 16 finisher.
In the third round, world junior debutants Ainaa and Yee Xin Ying met their match but it was not before giving a good account of themselves.
For the boys, Siow Yee Xian was the best finisher as he lived up to his seeding by reaching the quarter-finals before he was blown away by top seed and defending champion Mostafa Asal.
The trio of Amir Amirul, Danial Nurhaqiem and Duncan Lee also put up a decent showing by reaching the third round and then lost closely contested matches against higher ranked opponents.
Debutant Adam Agan Aziz also had a solid outing, reaching the second round and took a game off 5th-8th seed Yehia Elnawasany of Egypt.
However, Darryl Gan, failed to clear the first round as he wasted matchball opportunities against Hong Kong’s To Wai Lok.
Syafiq will not be too happy with his run of results in August. He participated in two tournaments – the Greetings Championships in Japan and the North Coast Open in Australia.
He finished in the semi-finals of the Japan meet which isn’t too bad as he lost to Egypt’s Omar Abdel Meguid.
But he will be bitterly disappointed in a straight game defeat to Addeen Idrakie in the semi-finals of the North Coast meet. Especially since the winner of that event would have earned a ticket to the Men’s World Championships in November.
A runners-up finish in the North Coast meet isn’t too bad. But Addeen will be ruing his wasted opportunity at grabbing a ticket to the Men’s World Championships.
On top of that, the world No. 96, clearly wasn’t at his best in his final defeat to Japan’s Ryosei Kobayashi. A painful lesson for sure.
The Australia-based player enjoyed a fine month in August as he grabbed his maiden PSA title at the Bendigo International in Australia before finishing in the quarter-finals of the Shepparton International.
A runners-up finish at the Bendigo International and two quarter-final finishes at the Shepparton International and North Coast Open is quite a solid return for the Australia-based Bryan.
Consistency is still a work in progress for Sai Hung as he reached the semi-finals of the Bendigo International but was knocked out in the first round of the South Australian Open.
Still has a long way to go in bridging the gap as he was a second round casualty in both the Greetings International in Japan and the SFRI Tour in India.
Not bad but not great either. Wen Li made the semi-finals of the South Australian Open and was just unlucky to lose to top seed Tong Tsz Wing of Hong Kong in a gruelliing 72-minute five-setter.
It’s two semi-finals finish for Kah Yan in the North Coast Open and the Melbourne Open. She had a rough two weeks at the world juniors after falling sick and will be disappointed that she couldn’t push herself to do better in Australia.
A top month for Aifa indeed. Fresh from her world junior exploits, the 17-year-old continued her fine run in Australia by winning both the North Coast Open and the Melbourne Open.
It’s a remarkable achievement for the Kedahan who is only ranked No. 164 in the world and had to slew a host of higher ranked players in two weeks. Her 6th PSA title.
Persatuan Squash Malaysia Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia (SRAM)
National Squash Centre, National Sports Centre, Bukit Jalil, 57000, Kuala Lumpur
Persatuan Squash Malaysia Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia (SRAM)
National Squash Centre, National Sports Centre, Bukit Jalil, 57000, Kuala Lumpur
