20 Oct 2019
Budapest, 20 October 2019. From October 18 to 20, a group of eleven Aspire Academy squash players participated in the Hungarian Junior Open in Budapest. In this Grand Prix tournament, which is the mid-tier ranking level event on the European junior circuit, standout performances came from student-athletes Mohamed Ouda and Ibrahim Al Darwish, who finished in 1st and 2nd place in the Under 17 event as well as Youssef Farag, who won the Under 15 category.
Both Mohamed and Ibrahim came through the 32 player draw with wins over the number 1 and number 2 seeds and played a high quality final with Mohamed narrowly edging out Ibrahim in five close games. Seeded number 1 for the Under 15 event Youssef Farag was pushed all the way by the Swiss number two seed in the final, also taking five games to win the title.
Salem Al Malki took 4th place in the Under 15 age category after reaching the semifinals which was a big improvement from the previous year’s event. Meanwhile there were also top 10 placings for Abdulla Khalifa (7th Under 13) and Waleed Zaman (9th Under 19).
The rest of the group all gained valuable competition experience playing between four and five matches in their respective age groups throughout the weekend.