Canada Eliminated from World Squash Juniors after Loss to Egypt by Danny Da Costa Wroclaw, Poland (July 25, 2013)
– The Canadian Girls Squash Team lost their quarter-final match today
against Egypt at the 2013 World Squash Junior Championships in Wroclaw,
Poland. The Canadian squad of Alyssa Mehta, Sophie Mehta, and
Chloe Chemtob were swept 3-0 in the singles matches against the top
seed and powerhouse Egyptian team.
Already coming into
the tournament as the three-time defending champions, the 2013 Egyptian
girls’ team has somehow managed to assert an even higher level of
supremacy. In the girls’ individual competition earlier at the event,
all four semi-finalists were Egyptians and Egyptian number one Nour El
Sherbini won her 2nd consecutive title, which was the 7th individual
title in the last eight years for Egypt. Such is the level of Egyptian
dominance that in their first four matches, Egypt has yet to lose a
single game; a perfect 35-0. Canada was drawn the inevitable task of
trying to withstand the Egyptians in the quarter-finals especially with
Canadian number one Hollie Naughton sitting out to rest an injury.
Alyssa Mehta was first
up for Canada and was pitted against the great El Sherbini. Mehta put
forth a game effort but succumbed to the World Junior Champion 11-6,
11-2, 11-8. Alyssa’s younger sister Sophie then had the task of trying
to keep Canada alive by beating Nouran Gohar. Sophie played a strong
first game but Gohar pulled it out 11-9. From there, and as is often
the case when playing the Egyptians, Gohar was simply too strong,
surging to a 11-9, 11-3, 11-5 victory and clinching a spot in the
semi-finals for Egypt. With the outcome no longer in doubt, Chemtob and
Mariam Ibrahim Metwaly played a best-of-three game match instead of the
usual best-of-five, with Metwaly winning in straight games, 11-9, 11-6.
While every loss is
disappointing, the match against Egypt could prove to be a valuable
learning experience for the youthful Canadian squad. In a tournament
that features the best under-19 squash players in the world, Sophie
Mehta and Chloe Chemtob are just 15 years of age, and both will be
eligible to represent Canada again in two years’ time on what is sure
to be a promising Canadian team.
The loss against Egypt
eliminates Canada from medal contention but Canada can still finish as
high as 5th place in the tournament as they entire the consolation
bracket. Canada will play India on Thursday for a spot in the 5th place
match. The matches against India can be seen live at 9:00am EST at
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.
