Chennai, Jan 6:
India’s Neel Joshi today entered the final of the boys under-15 section in the British Junior Open Squash in Birmingham, beating second-seed Muhammad Amir Aminul Azhar in a five-game semifinal.
The 5/8-seeded Joshi showed remarkable fighting qualities to down Azhar 13-11, 11-9, 5-11, 3-11, 11-8 for a place in the final, a release from Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI) here said.
He will face the top seed Samuel Todd of England in the title-clash on Sunday.
For the second year in succession an Indian player has stormed into the final in the tournament. Velavan Senthilkumar had won the under-19 title in the 2017 edition.
Earlier, Tushar Shahani and Joshi had kept India’s hopes alive in the tournament in the U-17 and U-15 boys’ categories respectively late on Friday.
Shahani had made the semis at the expense of compatriot Saksham Choudhary, currently India’s number one in U-17 category.
The Mumbai lad posted a 11-6, 11-7, 10-12, 11-5 win and in the process became the tournament’s lowest seeded player across all categories this year to reach the semi-final.
Shahani faces top-seeded Egyptian Omar El Torkey next later on Saturday.
In the U-15 section however it was a bit of a mixed luck. There were two Indians aspiring for the semi-final spot. While Neel Joshi won, his unseeded countryman Arnaav Sareen could not match up to the Egyptian Ahmed Aly, the 3/4 seed. Aly won 5-7, 11-7, 11-5, 11-9.
However, Joshi beat Egypt’s Ahmed Ismail 11-9, 10-12, 11-4, 8-11, 11-9. PTI
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