24 Apr 2017
Sandweiler, 24 April 2017. Ten players of Aspire Academy's squash program competed in the "Luxembourg Junior Open" held over the last weekend in Sandweiler. This year’s tournament comprised over 100 entries from across Europe and continues to grow in status on the European junior tour. The best results of the Aspire group came from Hamad Al-Amri and Mohamed Ouda who both reached the finals of their respective age categories.
Playing in his first under 19 event Hamad performed above his seeding to reach the final of the event. In the final his French opponent Romain Bouger was slightly more consistent, taking the opening two games of the match before Hamad forced his way back in to take the third game. In the fourth game however Hamad eventually went down in a close four games; 6/11, 9/11, 11/8, 8/11.
Mohamed Ouda performed well throughout the under 13 event to reach the final against number 1 seed and European number 6 Samuel Gerrits of the Netherlands. Though Mohamed gave his best efforts the final score was 11/3, 12/14, 4/11, 5/11 to his higher ranked opponent.
Waleed Zaman played some good squash to reach the semi-final of the under 15 event. After losing out narrowly in five games to French opponent Gregory Malsang in a high quality semi-final match Waleed backed up to take 3rd place the following day, winning the third and fourth playoff match in four games.
Elsewhere Rashid Al-Harib took 5th place in the under 17 age group and was also given the annual award for Fair Play from the tournament organisers for his exemplary behaviour throughout the event. This was a pleasing recognition for Rashid’s attitude on court and a good example for the other Aspire team members.
Results of Aspire Academy players at "Luxembourg Junior Open", April 21 - 23:
|
Name
|
Age Group
|
Position
|
|
Hamad Al-Amri
|
Under 19
|
2nd
|
|
Rashid Al-Harib
|
Under 17
|
5th
|
|
Ali Al-Dosari
|
Under 17
|
10th
|
|
Mohammed Alyafei
|
Under 17
|
13th
|
|
Waleed Zaman
|
Under 15
|
2nd
|
|
Yousef Elsaka
|
Under 15
|
15th
|
|
Ibrahim Al-Darwish
|
Under 15
|
16th
|
|
Mohamed Ouda
|
Under 13
|
2nd
|
|
Abdulrahman Al-Khalaf
|
Under 13
|
7th
|
|
Yousef Al-Kubaisi
|
Under 13
|
14th
|