Neel Joshi goes down in semi-finals of British Junior Open Squash

Neel Joshi (file photo)

12-year-old Neel Joshi’s brave run came to an end at the prestigious British Junior Open Squash Championships on Tuesday as he bowed out of the Boys U13 semi-finals of this Sheffield tournament.

The U13 National Champion put up a valiant effort, but was eventually edged by the ¾ seed Muhammad Azhar of Malaysia 12/14, 5/11, 10/12 after a 34-minute battle.

The 9/16 seeded Joshi had been a giant-killer at this tournament and had accounted for two seeds – second seed Mohamed Mostafa in the third round and 5/8 seed Oliver Green in the quarter-finals. He will now face fellow 9/16 seed Kareem El Torkey of Egypt in the bronze medal play-off.

The Mumbai boy was the only Indian still remaining in contention for a medal at the 2016 British Junior Open.

Joshi’s stellar performance comes on the back of a very impressive 2015 season that included U13 titles at the ISA Junior Open, the NSCI Junior Open, the Indian Junior Open and the 72nd CCI Western India Open, besides the Sub-junior Nationals.