Squash
World Junior Squash Team C'ships: Indian boys in semifinals after 13 years
India defeated last year’s finalist, South Korea, 2-1 in the quarterfinal tie.
Yusha Nafees gave Indian an early 1-0 lead. (Phot credit: yusha.nafees/Instagram)
The Indian junior boys' team advanced to the semifinals of the World Squash Junior Team Championships after 13 years in New Cairo, Egypt, on Wednesday.
In the quarterfinal tie, India defeated last year’s finalist, South Korea, 2-1 with the help of the match wins from Yusha Nafees and Arihant KS. Meanwhile, Sandesh PR had a disappointing outing.
Yusha started India’s campaign on a positive note, dominating Jeong Uk Ryu in straight games, 3-0 (11-5, 11-5, 11-9), winning the contest in 32 minutes, giving the team an early 1-0 lead.
However, South Korea bounced back as Sandesh Pr fell to Joo Young Na in straight games 0-3 (4-11, 4-11, 4-11).
With the tie level, Arihant KS stepped up and delivered with a decisive win against Jonghyeok Lee 3-1 (11-7, 11-13, 11-8, 11-4) in a hard-fought 53-minute contest.
Meanwhile, the Indian women's team was outclassed 0-3 by the 9-time defending champion Egyptian women's team in the quarterfinals. Anika Dubey, Unnati Tripathi and Navya Sundararajan lost their respective matches.
Anika lost 0-3 (11-2, 11-4, 11-5) to Nadien Elhammamy as Unnati surrerendered 0-3 (11-1, 11-3, 11-0) to Amina Orfi and Navya went down 0-3 (11-9, 11-5, 11-3) to Shayla Hazem.
