Malaysia advances to semis of Asian Junior Squash Team Championships

The national girls squash team booked their place to the semifinals at the 18th Asian Junior Squash Team Championships after scoring their fourth straight wins in group A of the meet held at the Hong Kong Squash Centre, on Thursday.

A 3-0 win against Singapore in the final preliminary fixtures, saw Malaysia who is also the top seed of the tournament, emerging as the Group A winner.

Aifa Azman gave Malaysia a flying start by defeating Steffii Chan 11-6, 11-4 and 11-7 before S. Sivasangari doubled the lead after fending off a strong challenge from Sneha Sivakumar, winning 12-10, 4-11, 11-6 and 11-5.

Zoe Foo Yuk sealed the win for Malaysia after whitewashing Bernyce Tay 11-1, 11-7 and 11-1, according to the Hong Kong Squash Association website www.hksquash.org.hk.

Malaysia will meet the group B runner-up in the semifinals match on Saturday.

Hosts Hong Kong and Japan will square-off in the final preliminary match, tomorrow to decide the group B winner.

For the record, Malaysia scored comfortable 3-0 wins against Taiwan and Macau on Wednesday besides registering the same results against South Korea in the third preliminary match in the morning session, Thursday.

In the boys division, Malaysia scored their second victory in Group B after whipping Taiwan 3-0.

Mohd Farez Izwan Mohd Mukhtar beat Chao Wen-Hao 11-2, 11-0 and 11-2 before Darren Rahul Pragasam extended Malaysia's lead by defeating Chu Ching-Hsuan 11-1, 11-4 and 11-4 and Muhammad Hafiz Zhafri Abdul Harif edged Huang Liang-Yu 11-4, 11-4 and 11-3 to seal the victory for Malaysia.

Malaysia will wrap up the preliminary match against second seeds Hong Kong, today.

For the record, Malaysia whipped Singapore 3-0 in the opening group match on Wednesday but lost 1-2 to Jordan in the second match in the morning session, on Thursday.

Based on the tournament format, the top two teams from each group A and B will advance to the semifinals.

-- Bernama