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British Junior Open 2005
02-06 Jan, Sheffield
06-Jan:
Into the final day..
Steve Line reports from Sheffield.

Egypt and Pakistan dominated the Finals at today's British Junior Open. Egypt won 3 of the 4 Girls events, most notably Ranim El Walily who won the U17 final 3-0 in 32 minutes against last year's U15 winner, Annie Au of Hong Kong. Walily now has two U17, two U15 and one U13 title and is undefeated in these Championships for 5 years.

 
The most compelling of this year's Finals was for the U19 Girls title which was won by Joshna Chinappa from India, improving on her runners-up spot of last year. Chinappa beat the unseeded Tenille Swartz from S. Africa 3-1 in 44 minutes and added to the sub-Continent's success of last year when Sourav Ghosal took the Boys U19 title. After levelling the score at one game all, the Indian's experience began to show and despite having an 8-2 lead whittled back to 8-6, she eventually took the third game on her sixth game ball and the fourth by 9-3 to add to her U17 title of 2003.
 
The U19 Boys event for the Drysdale Cup was won this year by Basit Ashfaq from Pakistan who beat the diminutive Tarek Momen from Egypt, a previous winner of U15 and U13 titles here. Ashfaq's power was the telling factor after he won a gruelling first game 10-8 in 21 minutes; despite losing the second 9-5 he rushed through the last 2 games for the loss of only 3 points.
 
Pakistan also won the U13 and U15 titles with Farhan Zaman, the 5/8 seed, winning the former in just 18 minutes and Shohaib Hassan, the 3/4 seed, winning the latter in 40 minutes, both by 3 games to love. The Boys U17 title also took less than half an hour with the second seed Omar Abo Zid from Egypt beating a tired-looking Bila Zaman from Pakistan without dropping a game.

Below - Group shot of all winners and runners-up

More reports from Sheffield...

Tom Elgood reports in depth for the British Junior Open

 

Farhan Zaman -  Winner Boys U13 Final

 

 Mohamed El Tayeb - Winner Girls U13 Final

 

Omar Abo Zid   - Winner Boys U17 Final

 

Heba Alaa Ahmed- Winner Girls U15 Final

 

Shohaib Hassan - Winner U15 Boys Final

British Junior Open 2005
02-06 Jan, Sheffield

Draws and Results from the England Squash Tournament Desk

RESULTS  |  ALL DRAWS   |  COMPETITORS   |  SCHEDULE   |  SEEDS

  • Boys U19

  • Boys U19 prelim

  • Boys U17

  • Boys U17 prelim

  • Boys U15

  • Boys U13

  • Girls U19

  • Girls U17

  • Girls U15

  • Girls U13

U19/15: Abbeydale     U17/13: Hallamshire     All matches on Thu 6th at Abbeydale

Boys Top Seeds Girls Top Seeds
U19:
[1] Yasir Butt (Pak)
[5/8] Tom Richards (Eng)
[5/8] James Wright (Eng)
[3/4] Ahmed Swaify (Egy)
[3/4] Chris Simpson (Eng)
[5/8] Chris Gordon (Usa)
[5/8] Simon Rosner (Ger)
[2] Basit Ashfaq (Pak)
U19:
[1] Charlie De Rycke (Bel)
[5/8] Nihal Yayha (Egy)
[5/8] Jenna Gates (Eng)
[3/4] Celia Allamargot (Fra)
[3/4] Sara Badr (Egy)
[5/8] Lilly Lorentzen (Usa)
[5/8] Petra Hughes (Aus)
[2] Joshna Chinappa (Ind)
U17:
[1] Mohamed Ali Anwar Reda (Egy)
[5/8] Sandeep Jangra (Ind)
[5/8] Chris Tasker-Grindley (Eng)
[3/4] Bilal Zaman (Pak)
[3/4] Omar Abdel Magid (Egy)
[5/8] Tom Pashley (Eng)
[5/8] Nicholas Muller (Sui)
[2] Omar Abou Zeid (Egy)
U17:
[1] Ranim El Weleily (Egy)
[5/8] Deon Saffery (Eng)
[5/8] Shahenda Osama (Egy)
[3/4] Joey Chan (Hkg)
[3/4] Camille Serme (Fra)
[5/8] Annie Au (Hkg)
[5/8] Rachel Green (Wal)
[2] Rachel Willmott (Eng)
U15:
[1] Leo Au (Hkg)
[5/8] El Shorbagy (Egy)
[5/8] Phillip Tran (Den)
[3/4] Ahmed Osama Hawas (Egy)
[3/4] Shohaib Hassan (Pak)
[5/8] Karim Mohamed Samy (Egy)
[5/8] Sam Wileman (Eng)
[2] Androw Wageh (Egy)
U15:
[1] Wee Wern Low (Mas)
[5/8] Dipika Pallikal (Ind)
[5/8] Natalie Pritchard (Wal)
[3/4] Heba Alaa Ahmed (Egy)
[3/4] Jasmine Ballmann (Sui)
[5/8] Victoria Bell (Eng)
[5/8] Merehan Amr Salah (Egy)
[2] Alia Magdy Balbaa (Egy)
U13:
[1] Ali Wael Farag (Egy)
[5/8] Farhan Zaman (Pak)
[5/8] Nicholas Hopcraft (Eng)
[3/4] El Sherbeny (Egy)
[3/4] Fouad Khalifa (Egy)
[5/8] Charles Sharpes (Eng)
[5/8] James Earles (Eng)
[2] Ramit Tandon (Ind)
U13:
[1] Wee Nee Low (Mas)
[5/8] Nouran Alaa Ahmed (Egy)
[5/8] Sachika Balvani (Ind)
[3/4] Abdel Megid (Egy)
[3/4] Nour Mohamed El Tayeb (Egy)
[5/8] Yan Xin Tan (Mas)
[5/8] Harriet Ingham (Eng)
[2] Salma Hany (Egy)
Reports
05-Jan:
British interest ends..
Steve Line reports from Sheffield.

British interest in the Drysdale Cup, the U19 Boys event at the British Junior Open, came to an end at the semi-final stage this afternoon. Tom Richards was unable to reproduce his giant-killing form of yesterday and went down to Tarek Mohamed Momen, the 17 year old from Egypt. After levelling the score at 1-1, and having game ball in third, Richards had continual problems with his shoes and eye-protector and managed to win only 4 more points, going down 3-1 in 56 minutes.

 
In the other semi-final, Chris Simpson from Guernsey started promisingly against the giant Pakistani, Basit Ashfaq, winning the first 9-4. However, the Pakistani's strength and speed then started to tell and the second seed came through 3-1 in 76 minutes.
 
In the Girls U19 event, the unseeded Tenille Swartz, the 18 year old from South Africa, beat the top seed Charlie De Rycke from Belgium and plays last year's runner-up Joshna Chinappa from India in the final tomorrow. Swartz is keen to go on the pro circuit after she finishes at college next year and could well cause a few problems for the more established professionals.
 
Further evidence of the worldwide spread of the game came in the Girls U17 when the holder, Annie Au from Hong Kong, reached her second successive final, beating Neha Kumar from Canada 3-0 in 31 minutes. Her brother Leo, however, was unable to repeat the family win; the top seed in the Boy's U15 lost a five game marathon against Ahmed Osama Hawas of Egypt. 
 

05-Jan:
Top seed upset..
Steve Line reports from Sheffield.

Tom Richards of England produced the upset of the tournament by brushing aside top seed Yasir Butt of Pakistan in the quarter final of the Boy's U19 by 3 games to 1. Deceptive front court flicks, devastating cross-court nicks and a superb reading of the Pakistani's game was too much for the top seed.

 
British hopes were further raised in the U19 section as Chris Simpson from Guernsey won a hard fought 3-2 battle against Chris Gordon of the US in front of a full crowd on the show court.
 
The British girls did not fare so well, however. The unseeded Tenille Swartz of S. Africa beat Jenna Gates of England, seeded 5/8 in the U19's, by 3 games to 1 and Rachel Willmott, the second seed in the U17, lost 3-0 to Neha Kumar of Canada in 27 minutes.  

04-Jan:
Top seeds through..
Steve Line reports from Sheffield.
  

Most of the top seeds came through in today's play at the Abbeydale (Boys and Girls U19 and U15) and Hallamshire (Boys and Girls U17 and U13) Clubs in Sheffield where over 450 juniors from 29 countries are competing in the 2005 British Junior Open.
 
A notable upset happened in the 2nd round of the Boy's U19 when the unseeded Grooss Jeppesen, Denmark, beat 9/16 seed Faisal Zaman, Pakistan, in 18 minutes for the loss of 1 point - unfortunately he didn't fare so well in the next round when he went down 3-0 against Chris Gordon of the US.
 
Tarek Momen, the U15 winner in 2003, who has skipped the U17 age-group to be a 9/16 seed in this year's U19, had a tough battle against James Wright of England, eventually coming through in 4 games after losing the first.
 

28-Dec:
the Egyptians are coming..
Chris Nutley previews the world’s premier junior event.
 

The world’s best junior players are due in Sheffield to help get the New Year off to a flying start at the British Junior Open which runs from 2-6 January. This season there will again be nearly 500 players from almost 30 countries from as far afield as New Zealand, Japan, Mexico and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The Egyptians have entered 54 players and look like being as strong as ever as they bid to improve on last year’s haul of four titles.  They will be without World Junior Champion Omneya Abdel Kawy, who has now entered the senior ranks after holding the Girls’ Under 19 title for an unprecedented four years.

However, they do have Ramy Ashour, the new Men’s World Junior Champion, who will be looking to add the Drysdale Cup to his collection of trophies.

Pakistan has proved itself to be a formidable force in junior men’s squash again over recent seasons and will certainly challenge again for the honours in Sheffield with both 2004 champions, Amir Atlas Khan and Waqar Mehboob, back in action.

With Omneya Kawy now out of age the Girls’ Under 19 Championship looks like being highly competitive with Joshna Chinappa (India) and the European Champion Charlie De Ryke (Belgium) likely to head the seedings.

The English challenge is likely to be spearheaded by Chris Simpson (Hants) and James Wright (Leics) in the Drysdale Cup and 6 times National Champion Rachel Willmott (Sussex) in the Girls’ Under 17s. After her wonderful recent win in the British Under 17 Championships over Rachel Willmott, Deon Saffery (Yorks) will also be hoping to challenge, as will fellow British U17 Champion Chris Tasker-Grindley (Gloucs).

Once again we can count on the fantastic support of the Sheffield Events Unit, Hallamshire SC and Abbeydale SC, without which the event would not be possible. Abbeydale’s all glass show court proved to be a great setting for last season’s finals and will once again be the focus of attention on finals day.

The British Junior Open is part of the ESF Junior Circuit and is now an ESF Gold Event.