Composed Narain shocks complacent Joseph

Mar 03, 2013 Sports

Sixteen-year old junior squash sensation Nyron Joseph was stunned by Nicholas Narain in straight games in the quarter final of the Bounty Farm Bounty Farm Mash Handicap tournament on Friday night at the Georgetown Club’s squash facility.
Joseph who possessed a -10 handicap was the favourite to win the encounter given his tremendous skills and tenacity on the squash courts. As recent as last year Joseph came from two games down to win his semi-final match in five games and then overcame that exact deficit again to win his second Caribbean title in the finals of the Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Caribbean Junior Championships in Jamaica.
Joseph’s ‘comeback-kid’ instincts made Narain’s -3 handicap appear to be another day in the park and true to form, Joseph erased the deficit winning by the first eleven points of the game on Friday night. However, after Joseph pulled even and then took the lead at 8/5 he seemed to have flipped the switched from over-drive to cruise control, which was a dangerous gear to be in with Narain on the other side of the court.
Narain’s cat-like reflexes and cunning tactics seemed to be waiting for ample opportunity to be showcased and Joseph provided an adequate stage. Narain’s variation of long and tight drives in the backcourt with carefully placed drop shots kept Joseph on his toes. While the 16-year old two-time CASA champion was able to reach most of these shots, the returns were either exactly where Narain wanted them or not above the tin line. Narain also got a few nicks to add insult to injury for Joseph who struggled at the opportune moments of the game.
Narain gained much confidence after the first game win and it was evident in his stroke play in the second game. Even after Joseph came back and drew even as he did in the first game, Narain kept close and fought evenly with Joseph for every point. Narain was able to hold his composure and pull off the stunning defeat in the second game to advance to the semi-final round of the tournament.
In one of the other quarter final encounters, Benjamin Mekdeci completed an impressive 2-1 victory against 2007 junior sportswoman of the year Ashley Khalil. Playing with zero against Khalil who was handicapped at -5, Mekdeci completed a strong performance to advance to the tournament semi-final. Top ranked player junior player Jason Ray Khalil was a sportsman and a gentleman against Ashley DeGroot while still managing to keep his spotless record of straight-game wins this tournament.
The other semi-finalist, Steven Xavier was scheduled to take on Narain while, Mekdeci was slated to face Khalil last night. The tournament was sponsored by Bounty Farm and organised by the Guyana Squash Association in collaboration with its number one corporate sponsor Digicel. The finals will be played at 11am today.
Friday’s results
Main Draw
Jason Ray Khalil (-20) defeated Ashley degroot (0) [15/10, 15/11]
Benjamin Mekdeci (0) defeated Ashley Khalil (-5) [15/9, 12/15, 15/3]
Nicholas Narain (-2) defeated Nyron Joseph (-10) [15/10, 16/14]
Plate
Lydia Fraser (+11) defeated Dwayne Yan (+10) [16/14, 15/10]
Alec Melville (+6) defeated Kiev Chesney (+12) [16/14, 12/15]
Pablio Mundini (+7) defeated Medhi Ramdhani (+5) [15/9, 12/15, 15/6]
Avinash Odit (+7) defeated Mahendra Khusial (+12) [16/14, 16/14]
Category A
Dominic Collins (+10) defeated Makeda Hardin (+8) [15/13, 14/16, 14/16]

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