Latest update November 26th, 2024 1:00 AM
GT&T National Senior Squash Championships underway
The much anticipated GT&T sponsored National Senior Squash Championships served off on Tuesday evening at the Georgetown Club courts.
For the first time the Guyana Squash Association has allowed a woman to compete in the men’s division at the national championships.
Nicolette Fernandes has been allowed to compete in both the men’s and ladies’ opens, with the understanding that her results in the men’s draw will not be recognized in the final placing.
This was done to give Fernandes much needed, tournament practice in preparation for her return to the international circuit.
Although most the top seeds received byes into the second round, Tuesday night still produced high quality, entertaining squash.
The most dramatic match of the evening involved Juan Carlos Lazo and promising junior player Nicholas Narain.
After fighting hard to tie the match up at two games all, Lazo seemed completely spent early in the fifth game when Narain got out to a 7-2 lead.
Lazo slowly but surely found his second wind to claw his way back into the game and even fought off two match points before upsetting his higher ranked opponent 10/9 in the fifth.
The other dramatic match of the evening featured former five-time junior Caribbean champion Kristina King and the talented junior national player Mary Fung-A-Fat.
King, who is on her summer break from attending university overseas, showed glimpses of brilliance when she raced out to a 2-0 lead in no time and reached match ball at 8-3 in the third.
At this point the match experienced a complete turn around when Fung-A-Fat took back the serve and went from 3-8 down to 10-8 without loosing the serve again.
As the match moved into the later stages, Fung-A-Fat just kept getting stronger and stronger while King faded badly, due to her inactivity over the past year. Fung-A-Fat completed the remarkable comeback by taking the last two games 9/5 and 9/0.
King’s older sister Andrea also had tough time of it against reigning under-13 Caribbean champion Victoria Arjoon, with Arjoon coming from one game down to prevail in four.
The most entertaining match of the night however took place between, multi talented athlete and Stabroek News reporter Kiev Chesney and national junior player Deje Dias.
Although a number of the rallies were very entertaining and Chesney showed good ball sense, Dias was in no mood to be generous as he only allowed the reporter two serves on his way to the 9/0 9/0 9/0 win.
The action was due to continue last evening when the top seeds begun their quest for national glory. On the men’s side, last year’s runner-up and top seed Kristian Jeffrey was down to take on Juan Carlos Lazo, while second seed Robert Fernandes was due to oppose Luca Palazzotto.
Nicolette Fernandes and Regan Pollard are the 3/4 seeds and they were set to start their account against Joe Mekdeci and Peter DeGroot respectively.
The 5-8 seeds in the men’s draw are Jerazeno Bell, Raphael DeGroot, Alexander Arjoon and Oliver Downes. In the ladies draw Fernandes is the top seed while reigning Caribbean under-15 champion Ashley Khalil is seeded two.
Last year’s, history making, senior national champion Keisha Jeffrey and Tiffany Solomon are the 3/4 seeds, while the 5-8 seeds are Kayla Jeffrey and the King sisters, Andrea, Kristina and Daina.
The ladies’ draw is already at the quarter-final stage with Fernandes scheduled to oppose Daina King, Keisha Jeffrey taking on Mary Fung-A-Fat, Tiffany Solomon against Victoria Arjoon and what should be the most competitive quarter-final match, Ashley Khalil versus Kayla Jeffrey.
The men’s quarter-final is scheduled for today while the finals of both categories are scheduled for Saturday evening.
Results Tuesday:
Men’s Open
Deje Dias defeated Kiev Chesney 9/0 9/0 9/0
Jason Ray Khalil defeated Jean-Claude Jeffrey 9/7 9/1 9/0
Juan Carlos Lazo defeated Nicholas Narain 1/9 9/2 8/10 9/6 10/9
Allan Downes defeated Lee Fung-A-Fat 9/1 9/2 9/0
Peter DeGroot defeated Javier Grau 9/2 9/3 9/0
Jerazeno Bell defeated Nyron Joseph 9/2 9/3 9/0
Damian Fernandes defeated Abhishek Singh 10/8 9/7 9/0
Raphael DeGroot defeated Stefan Jeffrey 9/0 9/1 9/1
Joe Mekdeci defeated Ingram Edwards 9/2 7/9 9/4 10/8
Alexander Arjoon defeated Jason Van Dyk 9/0 9/0 9/0
Luca Palazzotto received a walkover from Alex Gouveia
Ladies’ Open
Tiffany Solomon defeated Lydia Fraser 9/5 9/2 9/0
Mary Fung-A-Fat defeated Kristina King 5/9 6/9 10/8 9/5 9/0
Victoria Arjoon defeated Andrea King 7/9 9/2 9/6 9/6
Kayla Jeffrey defeated Ashley DeGroot 9/4 9/0 9/0
Daina King received a walkover from Alysa Xavier
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