Sheffield, Jan 5:
Three Indians, Velavan Senthilkumar, Adhitya Raghavan and Abhay Singh are on the verge of scripting history in the ongoing British Junior Open Squash tournament here, as they reached the semi-finals of the boys’ Under-19 category.
With all three making it to the last four stage, one thing is certain that one of them will be in the final of this prestigious event.
It was in 2004 last that an Indian had made it to the final in this section and on that occasion, Saurav Ghosal went on to win the title.
Only second seed Egyptian Youssef Ibrahim stands in the way of India making a clean sweep of the U-19 section.
As per the semifinal line up, Youssef faces Velavan and the other two — Adhitya and Abhay — face off against each other for the next spot in the final.
“This is the best thing that has happened to Indian squash in recent times,” said national coach Cyrus Poncha.
Abhay was the first to progress after a tremendous come back from two games down to get past 5-8th seed Kyle Finch of England.
Adhitya, who had reached the semi-final in the US Open just a few days ago, showed his mettle again dowing the giant-killer Andrew Douglas of USA.
The only seeded among the three Indians, Velavan then exhibited his potential while ending the run of 3-4th seed Victor Crouin of France in four games after losing the first.
Results:
U-19: Abhay Singh bt Kyle Finch (Eng) 5-11 6-11 11-8 11-6 11-8; Adhitya Ragavan bt Andrew Douglas (USA) 10-12 11-4 11-8 14-12; Velavan Senthilkumar bt Victor Crouin (Fra) 6-11 11-8 11-9 11-8. PTI
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