29 Aug 2016
Helsinki, 29 August 2016. Aspire Academy students put on credible performances and recorded some notable success at this year’s Finnish Junior Squash Open.The Finnish Junior Open is a European Junior circuit event which this year attracted a number of international players along with Scandinavia’s best juniors to Helsinki. A small group of Aspire players took part in this year’s tournament, Hamad Al-Amri, Waleed Zaman and Mohammed Alyafei.
Of the three boys competing the standout performance came from Hamad Al-Amri who won the Under 17 category, his first ever European junior event win. After struggling to find his rhythm early on in the tournament Hamad produced a more steady performance in both his semi-final and final matches. Playing on the glass show court in the final Hamad was in immediate control taking the first 2 games against the tournament’s number 1 seed, Norwegian Jesper Phillips. Though he had a slight lapse of concentration in the third game Hamad re asserted himself to take the match in 4 games and the title.
Waleed Zaman played with a good level of intensity in his opening matches, working hard to pressure his opponents whilst minimising his unforced error rate. After reaching the final of the U15 event Waleed continued this brand of squash and was able to take the opening two games against number one seed Nicolai Bo of Norway. Following the second game however Bo was able force his way back into the match causing Waleed’s length and ball control to be marginalised. Although he gave his best effort throughout Waleed was unfortunately unable to regroup and went down 5 games.
Elsewhere Mohammed Alyafei finished in 13th place in the Under 17 event after being knocked out of the main draw on the opening day of competition.The event provided good early season competition for the boys and for Hamad and Waleed it was an ideal tournament before next month’s Asian Junior Individual Championships in Malaysia.
Full results for the tournament can be found at the following link:
http://esf.tournamentsoftware.com/
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Name
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Category
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Finishing Place
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Hamad Al-Amri
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U17
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1st
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Waleed Zaman
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U15
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2nd
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Mohammed Alyafei
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U17
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13th
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