Canada on to Quarter-Finals with Victory over France
by Danny Da Costa


Wroclaw, Poland (July 24, 2013) – The Canadian junior girls squash team recorded a 3-0 sweep of France today at the 2013 World Squash Junior Championships in Wroclaw, Poland. The victory means Canada will advance to the quarterfinals to face top seeded Egypt.

With identical 1-1 records in Pool B play, France and Canada matched up in a do or die affair  with the winner of the final round robin match advancing to the medal round and the loser being sent to the consolation draw. The 7th seeded Canadians were a slight favourite over the 10th seeded French and would have to fight off a stiff challenge on the day to keep their medal hopes alive.

Canadian number one Hollie Naughton was able to shake off Tuesday’s tough five game loss to Team USA and get Canada started on the right foot with a victory over French number one Lea Van Der Zwalmen. Naughton jumped out to a quick two game to none lead before surrounding the third set to Van Der Zwalmen; however, Naughton did not allow the Frenchwoman to capitalize on her momentum as Naughton immediately came back strong, taking the 4th game and the match  for an 11-7, 11-5, 6-11, 11-7 victory.  Alyssa Mehta was next up for Canada in the best of three singles affair and clinched a spot for Canada in the quarterfinals with a heroic comeback against Oceane Wadoux. Mehta dug a big hole for herself after she lost both the 1st and 2nd games; down but not out, Mehta went for broke against Wadoux in an intense 3rd game that went back and forth before Mehta finally clinched the game 14-12. With Wadoux lamenting a missed chance to close out the match, Metha came back even stronger in the 4th game, recording an 11-5 score line. In the deciding 5th game, Mehta had both the momentum and confidence on her side and she closed out the match, and clinched a spot for Canada in the quarterfinals, with a 7-11, 4-11, 14-12, 11-5, 11-4 win. Already holding an insurmountable 2-0 lead against France, Chloe Chemtob completed a sweep for Canada with a 13-11, 11-6, 15-13 victory over Laura Gamblin.

Next up for Canada is their quarter-final against the powerhouse Egyptian squad on Thursday. The number one seed Egyptians will be heavy favourites; in the girls individual singles competition earlier at the World Squash Junior Championships, all four semi-finalists were Egyptians.  The matches against Egypt will begin at 8:30am EST and can be viewed using the following link: http://nasquasha.pl/filmy/1777-world-squash-junior-championships-2013-live
 
About the World Squash Junior Championships

The World Squash Junior Championships is an annual squash championship that is contested by the top under 19 squash players in the world.  Competitions are conducted in three categories: girls, boys and teams.  The team competition alternates every year between girls and boys with 2013 featuring the girls’ team event.  The 2013 team competition features squads from 16 countries grouped into four pools of four. For each fixture, competing countries select three team members to compete in a best of three singles format against the opposition. The top two teams from each pool advance to the quarterfinals where a standard playoff elimination format is used.