Hamza Khan brings U-15 British Junior Open title back to Pakistan after 8 years!

[MenInG]

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s promising youngster Mohammad Hamza Khan on Monday outclassed Yusuf Sheikh of England to win the U-15 title at the British Junior Open Squash Championship.

Looking in extremely good form, the 14-year-old Hamza tamed Yusuf in just 16 minutes, registering a 11-4, 11-3, 11-7 victory in the final at Birmingham.

Overall Pakistani juniors exhibited brilliant performance at the British Open Junior championship. Apart from Hamza’s superb show, compatriots Mohammad Ammad and Noor Zaman also reached the U-15 and U-17 semi-finals, respectively.

The achievement of Hamza gave a new life to Pakistan squash as the country regained the title after eight long years. Israr Ahmed last won the championship for Pakistan in 2012.

“I am very happy, I defeated all the big players. Next time I would visit here to win U-17 [title],” a jubilant Hamza said in his video message, which was shared with Pakistani media, after winning the decider.

Meanwhile, speaking to Dawn from Birmingham, Pakistan team manager Hussain Odhwani said, “It’s an honour as well as a moment of pride to see our youth bringing back the glory that Pakistan once held in the world of squash. It’s also encouraging to see that the support we’re extending to sports as sponsor and manager is paying off in the form of titles such as British Junior Open and Asian Junior Championship.”

Pakistan Squash Federation secretary Tahir Sultan said winning the U-15 title at the British Junior Open is a big achievement of Hamza.

“Overall performance of our players remained very good, it’s a good sign for the PSF and Pakistan’s squash,” Tahir said.

“Egypt participated in the championship with more than 100 players. [Whereas] only nine players represented Pakistan in this event and out of them three played semi-finals and one — Hamza — won the championship,” he underlined.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1526683/hamza-khan-brings-u-15-british-junior-open-title-back-to-pakistan

 

[MenInG]

Great days ahead for Pakistan squash if this continues.

 

[saeed5646]

Wow seems like alot of promising talent coming through junior ranks .Excellent victory

 

[MenInG]

Legendary Squash player Jahangir Khan congratulated British Junior Open squash champion, Mohammad Hamza Khan.

Hamza, who won the title by beating England’s Yousuf Sheikh in the U15 final, received congratulatory remarks from one of the greats of the game.

“Hamza is a young talented kid and I congratulate him for winning this title for Pakistan, especially regaining the title for the country after almost 12 years,” he congratulates the youngster while talking to ARY News.

Khan advised young Hamza to continue his performance to win more title for Pakistan in the future. “He needs to keep working hard to make a way forward. He is a talented kid and will get mature once he focuses completely from nowhere,” he said.

Jahangir thinks that ample opportunities are the only way to push young talent on international platforms. “We need to produce opportunities for youngsters to prove their mettle,” he concluded.

https://arysports.tv/legendary-jehangir-khan-congratulates-champion-hamza-khan/

 

[Abdullah719]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Happy to see a player from Pakistan winning the British Juniors under 15. I remember during my junior days my goal was to beat the Pakistani players because they were the hardest to play. A country that has a lot of history in our sport and hopefully we see more of them coming up</p>— Mohamed ElShorbagy (@MoElshorbagy) <a href="https://twitter.com/MoElshorbagy/status/1214269868125675521?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 6, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[SensiblePakFan]

Good to see there is still hope for a senior title.

 

[MenInG]

Our young hero comes home

 

[IAJ]

Well done. Mubarak hou. Just keep working hard and don’t let this early fame interrupt your future ambitions.

 

[MenInG]

Winner of US Junior Open Squash Championship 2020 in Boys Under 15 Category, Muhammad Huzaifa Ibrahim was recently awarded a token of appreciation by CEO PIA Air Marshal Arshad Malik for his stellar achievements in the world of Squash.

 

[BouncerGuy]

Na takes down reigning champion Khan in WSF World Junior Squash Championship quarter-final shock

Republic of Korea’s Joo Young Na recorded a stunning upset against defending champion and No.2 seed Hamza Khan to become the first ever Korean to reach the semi-finals of the WSF World Junior Squash Championships.

The [9/16] seed had already made history at Houston Squash Club by becoming the first player from his country to reach the quarter-finals after a victory over compatriot Seojin Oh yesterday, but today went one better with a spectacular performance.

Na started his match brilliantly against Khan, who last year ended Pakistan’s 37-year-wait for the title, pinning the No.2 seed in the back corners and drawing errors from his fellow 18-year-old to race into a 2-0 lead.

The expected Khan response finally came in game three as the reigning champion began to settle and find his marks, with Khan taking the game 11-7 and then levelling with a comfortable 11-3 win in game four.

Despite momentum seeming to be behind Khan, Na regathered his composure fantastically in game five, outmaneuvering the tiring Khan and steadily building up an increasingly unassailable-looking lead, which proved the case as, despite a late surge from Khan, Na was able to hold out to record an 11-5 victory to see out the match.

“It was a very tough game, I’m so exhausted! I tried to play with confidence and be aggressive. I’m so happy to win and go through to the semi-final,” Na said afterwards.

Na will take on fellow [9/16] seed Harith Danial for a place in the final after the Malaysian overcame English [9/16] seed AbdAllah Eissa in straight games.

The other men’s semi-final will be contested by India’s Shaurya Bawa and Egyptian No.1 seed Mohamad Zakaria after they beat Malaysia’s Low Wa Sern and Pakistan’s Abdullah Nawaz, respectively.

Bawa showed impressive determination and composure in his semi-final win over Low, fighting back from three match balls down to become the first Indian to reach the last four since Kush Kumar in 2014, with the Indian collapsing to the ground after the win as the realisation of his achievement sank in.

Incredibly, Bawa wasn’t the only player to mount a thrilling comeback from three match balls down, with [3/4] seed Nadien Elhammamy doing the same against Indian [5/8] seed Anahat Singh in the women’s draw.

Elhammamy who five days ago celebrated her 17th birthday, started well against the 16-year-old, opening up a 2-0 lead as she defended Singh’s attacking game well.

The Indian came back hard in game three, though, reducing the deficit with an 11-5 win in game three and a hard-fought 12-10 victory in game four.

Singh appeared to have completed the comeback when she went 10-8 up in the fifth game, only for Elhammamy to dig in spectacularly to force a tie break.

Singh earned another match ball at 11-10 but once again was denied by the Egyptian, with Elhammamy storming on to clinch the game 13-11 and the match 3-2.

Afterwards, Elhammamy said: “I’m very proud of myself; that comeback in the last game was honestly incredible.”

Elhammamy will play fellow Egyptian and defending champion Amina Orfi after the top seed made short work of compatriot Nour Megahed.

The other women’s semi-final will be contested by USA’s [3/4] seed Caroline Fouts, who maintained her perfect record in Houston with a 3-0 win over Egyptian [5/8] seed Janna Swaify, and Egyptian No.2 seed Fayrouz Aboelkheir, who coasted past USA’s [5/8] seed Riya Navani.

SOURCE: https://www.worldsquash.org/na-take...nior-squash-championship-quarter-final-shock/

 

[Aang_The_last_airbender]

Pakistan is showing signs of revival in squash. Will the govt and Pakistani public back these stars?