Leicestershire’s Lily Taylor and Kent’s Georgina Kennedy pulled off shock wins in the World Junior Women’s Individual Championship in Namibia yesterday to qualify for today’s quarter-finals.
The 9/12 seeds both beat 5/8 seeds in round three, with Taylor (pictured) overcoming France’s Marie Stephan 3/2 after losing the first two games and Kennedy defeating Belgium’s Nele Gilis 3/1.
Taylor – who triumphed 5-11, 3-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-5 in 52 minutes – now faces top seed Nour El Sherbini (Egypt), who is chasing a record fourth title, while Kennedy’s reward for her 6-11, 11-3, 11-6, 11-8 win in 42 minutes is an encounter with joint third seed Mariam Metwally, also from Egypt.
It was sweet revenge for Kennedy, who only a month ago lost to the European junior champion in the final of the Pioneer Cup in Germany.
These were the second games of the day for the English pair, with Taylor having crushed Namibia’s Nhadia Maria Gustavo 11-0, 11-2, 11-1 in a 12-minute second-round tie, while Kennedy trounced Switzerland’s Nadia Pfister 11-5, 11-4, 12-10 in 23 minutes.
Surrey’s Alison Thomson also qualified for round three by upsetting 13/16 seed Laura Tovar (Colombia) 11-9, 11-9, 12-10 in 33 minutes, but she then lost 11-6, 11-9, 11-4 in 30 minutes to Salma Hany Ibrahim, the 3/4 seed from Egypt.
England’s two other representatives in the junior women’s tournament – Kent’s Amelia Henley and Cheshire’s Jessica Davis – exited at the second-round stage after straight-games defeats by seeds, Henley 11-4, 11-5, 11-2 to El Sherbini in 24 minutes and Davis to Harshit Kaur Jawanda, the 13/16 seed from India, by an 11-8, 11-6, 11-7 margin in 27 minutes.
Meanwhile, Taylor’s county team-mate, George Parker, reached the last eight in the junior men’s event, routing unseeded Egyptian Saadeldin Ehab Abouaish 11-5, 11-1, 11-6 in a 36-minute fourth-round match.
The 5/8 seed’s next opponent is joint third seed Kush Kumar, of India.
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Women’s 3rd round:
[1] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) bt [13/16] Kacey-Leigh Dodd (RSA) 11-4, 11-2, 11-1 (21m)
[9/12] Lily Taylor (ENG) bt [5/8] Marie Stephan (FRA) 5-11, 3-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-5 (53m)
[5/8] Habiba Mohamed Ahmed (EGY) bt [9/12] Tinne Gilis (BEL) 11-0, 11-7, 11-2 (18m)
[3/4] Salma Hany Ibrahim (EGY) bt Alison Thomson (ENG) 11-6, 11-9, 11-4 (30m)
[3/4] Mariam Metwally (EGY) bt [13/16] Reeham Sedky (USA) 11-3, 11-5, 11-8 (37m)
[9/12] Georgina Kennedy (ENG) bt [5/8] Nele Gilis (BEL) 6-11, 11-3, 11-6, 11-8 (42m)
[5/8] Sabrina Sobhy (USA) bt [9/12] Olivia Fiechter (USA) 4-11, 11-5, 11-3, 11-8 (32m)
[2] Nouran Gohar (EGY) bt [13/16] Harshit Kaur Jawanda (IND) 11-2, 11-7, 11-0
Men’s 4th round:
[1] Diego Elias (PER) bt [13/16] Mohd Syafiq Kamal (MAS) 11-4, 11-4, 11-8 (28m)
[5/8] Mohamed Elgawarhy (EGY) bt [9/12] Israr Ahmed (PAK) 11-5, 11-8, 11-4 (28m)
[5/8] George Parker (ENG) bt Saadeldin Ehab Abouaish (EGY) 11-5, 11-1, 11-6 (36m)
[3/4] Kush Kumar (IND) bt Darren Chan (MAS) 11-3, 11-4, 11-7 (27m)
[3/4] Tayyab Aslam (PAK) bt [13/16] Auguste Dussourd (FRA) 11-6, 11-7, 11-3 (36m)
[9/12] Omar Elatmas (EGY) bt Kristian Rautiainen (FIN) 11-4, 11-3, 11-3 (37m)
[9/12] Syed Ali Mujtaba Shah Bokhari (PAK) bt Laurence Kuhn (RSA) 11-4, 11-6, 11-9 (31m)
[13/16] Youssef Soliman (EGY) bt Youssef Aboul-Makarim (EGY) 8-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-5 (62m)
Men’s quarter-final line-up:
[1] Diego Elias (PER) v [5/8] Mohamed Elgawarhy (EGY)
[3/4] Kush Kumar (IND) v [5/8] George Parker (ENG)
[3/4] Tayyab Aslam (PAK) v [9/12] Omar Elatmas (EGY)
[13/16] Youssef Soliman (EGY) v [9/12] Syed Ali Mujtaba Shah Bokhari (PAK)
Women’s quarter-final line-up:
[1] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) v [9/12] Lily Taylor (ENG)
[3/4] Salma Hany Ibrahim (EGY) v [5/8] Habiba Mohamed Ahmed (EGY)
[3/4] Mariam Metwally (EGY) v [9/12] Georgina Kennedy (ENG)
[2] Nouran Gohar (EGY) v [5/8] Sabrina Sobhy (USA)
Report courtesy of EnglandSquashAndRackets.com