KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian junior squash players made an historic outing at the 2018 British Junior Open (BJO) championship by winning four titles on Sunday.
12-year-old K. Sehveetrraa made her BJO debut a memorable one by winning the Girl’s Under–13 title after the Kedahan defeated Egypt’s Fayrouz Abouelkheir 11-7, 11-9, 11-9 in 26 minutes in Birmingham. The joint third-fourth seed had advanced to the final after eliminating second seed Malak Taha of Egypt 11-8, 11-5, 11-7 in the semifinals.
Sehveetrraa’s triumph was followed by the Azman double when sisters Aira and Aifa won the U-15 and U-17 finals respectively.
In controversial circumstances, Aira claimed the U-15 title after Egypt’s Sana Ibrahim was disqualified in their final. After the first four sets ended 11-8, 11-5, 10-11, 6-11, 13-year-old Aira was trailing 2-4 in the fifth set before the Egyptian was disqualified in the tournament.
Aira had entered the final after upsetting Britain’s Katie Maliff 8-11, 11-9, 6-11, 11-5, 13-11 in the semifinals and top seed Nour Aboulmakarim of Egypt in the quarterfinals. Older sister Aifa claimed her third BJO title, upsetting top seed Marina Stefani of United States 11-7, 11-5, 11-9 in just 27 minutes.
The 16-year-old had won the U-13 and U-15 categories in 2014 and 2016 respectively. Finally, national number two S. Sivasangari completed Malaysia’s four-title haul after defeating Japan’s Satomi Watanabe 12-10, 11-7, 11-9 in the Girl’s U-19.
The 18-year-old Kedahan, who have won the U-15 title in 2014, had overcome England’s Elise Lazarus 11-8, 11-3, 13-11 in the semifinals on Saturday. — Bernama