Malaysia's Aifa Azman and England's Jasmine Hutton clash in the teams semifinal. Photo/World Junior Squash Championship
Malaysia's Aifa Azman and England's Jasmine Hutton clash in the teams semifinal. Photo/World Junior Squash Championship
By Jim Kayes
Hania El Hammamy's desperate to go one better than she did on Monday with her team tomorrow. The Egyptian 16 year-old was top seed for the World Junior Squash Championship in Tauranga but lost to teammate Rowan El Araby in Monday's final.
It hurt then and itstill hurts now.
"I was very disappointed to lose the final of the individuals," El Hammy said after her straight sets win against Hong Kong China's Lui Hiu Lam in the teams semifinal today.
"I didn't perform the way I wanted to in the final and it's such a shame.
"But I have a chance to win the teams event. I have to forget about the individuals and focus on the teams."
Malaysia's Aifa Azman at full stretch in her win against England's Jasmine Hutton in the teams semifinal of the World Junior Squash Championship.
Egypt are top seeds and have won the last five teams title. After beating Hong Kong China 2-0 in today's semifinal they're through to their eighth successive final tomorrow. "We are so happy to be in the final," El Hammamy said. "It's the first time for all of us to be in the teams event, we're excited and we want to win it."
They will play Malaysia who beat England 2-0, with Aifa Azman part of an extremely physical match first up against Jasmine Hutton that she eventually won 3-1.
Malaysia's No1 Sivasangari Subramaniam then made short work of Lucy Turmel, winning 3-0. She will play El Hammamy in the first match of the final in a replay of the individuals quarterfinal that El Hammamy won in five.
She was helped that day when Subramaniam was hit in the mouth and had to take a long injury break to stop the bleeding.
"When I went off for that break I lost all my momentum and couldn't come back," Subramaniam said. She wouldn't be drawn on how confident she was of a different result in the final.
"I'm confident I will give it 100 per cent and play my best."
Egypt's Hania El Hammamy is all focus in her straight sets win against Hong Kong China's Lui His Lam.
The second-seed Malaysians are also confident they have nothing to lose from here.
"All the pressure is on them because they have the title," Subramaniam said. "There is no pressure on us."
In other consolation games New Zealand again lost, this time 2-0 to the USA, while India beat Germany, France beat Ireland, South Africa lost to Australia and Canada beat Korea.
Tomorrow's final between Egypt and Malaysia is at 3.30pm at the Queen Elizabeth Youth Centre.
