16 Jul 2017
Amsterdam, 16 July 2017. Aspire Academy's Squash team travelled to Amsterdam to compete at the "Dutch Junior Open" from July 13 to 16. The top tier European Squash Federation (ESF) event featured most of the world’s best junior players, competed over four days for the prestigious titles.
Grade nine student Waleed Zaman was Aspire’s highest placed competitor, finishing 14th in the under 15 category. Zaman played well throughout the event, especially in his 3-0 win against Frenchman Arthur Gauthier Minne, who had knocked out 3rd seed Luis Grubel on his run through the draw. Mohammed Ouda continued his impressive form from the "Cologne Junior Cup", and despite not quite reaching the heights of the previous week still finished a credible 27th place in the under 15 category.
Grade 7 student Yousef Al-Kubaisi produced a string of solid performances on his route to finishing 33rd in the under 13 competition. After losing his first match to Christain Dominguez Canelon of Spain, Al-Kubaisi won all of his remaining matches, with his confidence and quality of play improving visibly in each match. Ibrahim Al- Darwish, Aspire’s final player in the under 15 event, yet again played with dogged determination, fighting his way to 42nd position. This was an improvement on his final position last week and he is now demonstrating that he is much more capable of competing at this level in Europe. Hamad Al-Amri played with improved concentration and discipline this week, recovering strongly after losing his first match to win four of his remaining five matches on his way to finishing in 41st place in the under 19 event.
The team now returns to Doha to begin preparations for the Asian Championships in August.