24 Jun 2015
Doha, 24 June 2015. The squash team of Aspire Academy returned to Doha following a successful week in Riccione competing at the Italian ‘Junior Open Squash Championships’. The highlights of the tournament came from Azlan Amjad and Umair Zaman who finished in 3rd and 4th place respectively in the Under 19 category. Both produced quality performances throughout the event with Azlan coming very close to making the final for the first time.
After reaching the semi-final Azlan made an excellent start against number one seed Enzo Corigliano of France. In this match Azlan looked to have the edge over his highly ranked opponent, however he narrowly went down over five games 11/8, 13/11, 8/11, 7/11, 6/11. In the other half of the Under 19 draw Umair saved match balls in his quarter final before eventually getting the better of the number two seed to also reach the semi-finals. After their semi-final losses both played each other in the final playoff match of the tournament with Azlan defeating Umair three games to one to take the final podium position.
Waleed Zaman demonstrated the improvement he has made during his first year at Aspire by reaching his first ever European quarter final in the Under 13 category. There he was slightly unlucky to come up against Swiss number one seed Miguel Mathis whom he was defeated by in straight games. Following this Waleed went on to win his two remaining matches to take 5th place.
Ali Al-Dosari and Mohammed Alyafei both found the standard of competition difficult but benefited from playing against a variety of opponents before finishing in 21st and 31st positions in their respective events.
Full results for all student athletes can be found on the Italian Junior Open website at: http://www.federsquash.it/italian-junior-open/info.html
NAME |
CATEGORY |
PLAYED |
WON |
FINAL POSITION |
AZLAN AMJAD |
U19 |
5 |
4 |
3rd |
UMAIR ZAMAN |
U19 |
5 |
3 |
4th |
MOHAMMED ALYAFEI |
U17 |
4 |
0 |
31st |
ALI AL-DOSARI |
U15 |
3 |
1 |
21st |
WALEED ZAMAN |
U13 |
5 |
3 |
5th |