British Junior Open Report: English Advance as Egyptian Boys Falter in Sheffield by Steve Cubbins
photos Steve Cubbins
January 3, 2014 - Another busy day in Sheffield as many of the draws worked their way down to the quarter-final stage.
At Abbeydale, where
all the finals will be held, there were two rounds of play in the Boys
U19 and one in the Girls top age group as the quarter-finalists were
decided.
Egypt predictably
dominated the Girls event with their top four seeds all winning, but
England will have three players in the quarters, and Belgium one.
Less good news for
Egypt in the boys matches with just two left in contention, while
England are guaranteed a semi-finalist after wins from Richie Fallows
and George Parker.
The upset of the day though came from India's Kush Kumar who took out second seed Shehab Essam in three impressive games.
At Hallamshire there
were upsets too with three 3/4 seeds falling - Malaysia's Jessica Kheng
(G15) and India's Adhitya Raghavan (B15) upset the seedings, and James
Peach boosted English interest in the U17 boys, beating 3/4 seed Karim
Ibrahim 20/18, 12/10, 11/9!
