KL Junior Open squash: Abhay Singh placed third

Abhay Singh took the third place in the U-19 boys’ section in the KL junior open squash championship which concluded on Sunday in Kuala Lumpur.

After a first round bye, the ¾ seeded Abhay, a pupil of the Indian squash academy in Chennai, beat Malaysia’s Muhammad Hafiz Zulkifli in straight games 11-6, 11-7, 11-7. In the quarterfinal the Indian ousted the Japanese player Yamato Sonobe 11-7, 11-5, 11-7. Known for his fighting qualities, Abhay gave his all against the top seeded Sajad Zareian of Iran but fell in the decisive fifth game to lose out a place in the final. The Iranian won 11-8, 8-11, 11-8, 7-11, 16-14.

Another Indian to go some distance was Nikhil Jason in the Boys U-15. The 9/16 seeded player reached the fourth round before exiting. Nikhil had a bye in the first round, then beat Netish Tharmaraja of Malaysia 11-2, 11-3, 11-5 next, got past Augustine Eugine again of Malaysia 11-5, 11-9, 11-7 before falling to Muhammad Ramlee of Malaysia 11-3, 11-5, 11-2 in the pre-quarter.

The only other Indian to take part in the tournament, Rhea Madhuvanthi in the girls U-11 lost out in the second round.