Egyptians dominant in last sixteen as boys' seeds continue to fall ...

Today's evening session saw the last sixteen rounds in both girls and boys draws, the girls having played their fourth round earlier in the day.

Local favourite and top seed Dipika Pallikal opened proceedings on the showcourt, ending the run of unseeded young Egyptian Yathreb Adel, but after that there was no stopping the Egyptians as they claimed six of the remaining places in the quarter-finals.

Nouran and Heba El Torky, Salma Hany, Nour El Tayeb, Kanzy El Defrawy and Nour El Sherbini took up those places, with Pakistan's Maria Toor Pakay claiming the final spot.

In the boys' event top seeds Mohamed El Shorbagy and Ivan Yuan won comfortably enough, but these two plus Andrew Wagih, Amr Khaled Khalifa and Farhan Zaman remain from the top eight seeds.

France's Luca Serme, Germany's Rafael Kandra and Pakistan's Aurangzeb Mehmund - who won a nail-biting match to put out fifth seed Alfredo Avila in five - claimed unexpected quarter-final places.

Day Two - Girls Round Three

Yethreb & Egyptians march on,Sobhy stuns Gemmell ...

Having beaten the 9th seed yesterday Yethreb Adel continued on her winning ways with a straight-games win over 18th seed Milou Van Der Heijden.

"I can't believe it," said a delighted Yethreb, "I'm the youngest one here and now I'm in the last 16!".

Yethreb is joined by six other Egyptians - Heba & Nouran El Torky, Nour El Tayeb, Nour El Sherbiny,Kanzy El Defrawy and Salma Hany in tonight's last sixteen, and

Yathreb faces the daunting task of meeting top seed Dipika Pallikal on her home turf. The top seeds cruised through her early-morning match, playing up to her favourite's billing so far.

That wasn't so much of a shock, but the final match of the round saw the departure of third seed Laura Gemmell, one of the pre-tournament favourites.

USA number two Amanda Sobhy, 16 last month, took a two-game lead, and at 6-3 in the third it looked all over for the Canadian favourite. Gemmell dug in to pull that back 11/9, but Sobhy came out firing in the fourth, building another big lead and this time there was no mistake.

"That's probably my best win so far, certainly the best in juniors," said a delighted Amanda.

"I'd never played her before, but I knew she was very consistent. So I had to compete with that, keep the rallies going and not hit any tins. It paid of, and towards the end I kept telling myself that she must be tired too, because I was.

"I had a lead in the third, let that slip, but once I'd got a bigger lead in the fourth there was no way I was going to blow that one too ..."

It was a good morning for the USA, with Olivia Blatchford - expectedly - and Elizabeth Eyre - who scored an upset win over England's Kimberley Hay - joining Amanda in the last 16.

The Malaysian pair of Low Wee Nee and Nessrine Ariffin both reached their seeded positions, with Canada's Samantha Cornett and Pakistan's Maria Toor Pakay making up the final sixteen.

Dipika to strive ro create history

From the Hindu

Chennai (PTI): India's Dipika Pallikal, who has been top seeded in the World junior individual championship, will strive to create history by winning the women's title.

Seventeen-year old, Dipika is fast emerging as a squash superstar. She has steadily been gaining points in the world junior circuit ever since she had the rare distinction of being the first Indian squash player to be ranked No. 1 in the European and Asian rankings in the under-15 category.

In the history of the championship, India's Joshna Chinappa has the best results having lost in the 2005 title clash at Herentals (Belgium) to Egypt's Raneem el-Weleily.

National coach Cyrus Poncha has also pinned hopes on Pallikal creating history by becoming the first Indian to win the title. "Obviously, we are all excited for Dipika. She best represents our hopes in becoming the first Indian ever to win a World title. The ICL Academy courts are where she began her squash career and she will have our backing."

However, Pallikal, being sponsored by the L.N.Mittal Trust, feels that she needs to be patient in scoring winners against the tough Egyptian rivals and few others.

She has to ward off a bunch of talented Egyptian players, six of whom are among the top 16 seeds, besides Canada's Laura Gemmell (third seed). "The competition will not be just from the Egyptians. Everyone in the fray has been training hard. I will take one match at a time and give my best", Pallikal, who is also into modelling, said.

The top seed at the championship, which begins on Wednesday, said the world junior title is a priority for her. She has been training under Amir Wagih in Egypt with that in mind.

"I have been training with Wagih for the last two years and everything has been going in the right direction. This year my hope has been to peak for the junior world title."

With only Anwesha Reddy, seeded 9-16 for company in the seeding list, Pallikal has fairly easy rounds with a bye to the second round until she meets 17-32 seeded player from New Zealand or the Netherlands in the quarterfinals.

Apart from Pallikal and Anwesha, India has fielded nine other players in the women's section.

On the other hand, Egyptian el-Shorbagy, the defending men's champion, is considered a certainty at retaining his title in men's section.

The Indian challenge in the boys’ individual event will be led by 9-16 seeds Aditya Jagtap and Ravi Dixit and the 17-32 seeds Karan Malik and Ramit Tandon and eight other unseeded players.

On the chances of India in the championship, Dixit, an Asian Junior bronze medallist said "it is a tough field. We have to give our best and perform to our potential to progress into medal contention. We have had the best of preparations for the event. Malim, Tandon and myself had a month long training under Malcolm Willstrop in Leeds in England. It was a great experience as the focus was building our basic game."