Shocking shocks and history-making at the Junior World Championships in France!
9/16 seed Brice Nicolas (France) reached the quarter-finals with a win over No. 2 seed Noor Zaman, 14-year-old Anahat Singh (India) shocked 5/8 seed Torrie Malik, and Juan Jose Torres Lara and Rowan Dumming were first seeded players from Colombia and the Netherlands who reached the top eight players.
Nicholas entered the match as an underdog against the mighty 18-year-old Zaman, grandson of the great Noor Zaman, who dreamed of winning this year's title and bringing victory to Asia. However, the Frenchman was unstoppable from the start and easily won the first game 11-5 thanks to his impressive speed.
Nicholas says: “I'm very happy, I think I haven't realized yet that I've reached the quarterfinals. I trained a lot during the month to prepare for the tournament, I did fitness and it's nice to see that everything was not in vain.
"I think I played a great match, the support of my team and the crowd helped me a lot."
Brice's victory was far from the only highlight of the day, with the 9/16 seed Singh knocking out England's Torrey Malik in a 3-1 victory. Despite her young age, Singh has quickly become a household name in the squash world following her achievements at junior tournaments and at the recent World Games, where she reached the second round.
"I'm really happy to beat her, she won the British Junior Open so I didn't expect to win," said Singh, who became the first 14-year-old to reach the quarter-finals since Marina Stefanoni in 2017.
The girl added: “I really wasn't nervous because I had nothing to lose. I just wanted to play my best, so I wasn't nervous at all, which was surprising. It was like playing at the Games, where I was playing against older opponents."
The winner of the quarter-final match, Rowan Damming, also made history, as he became the first Dutchman to reach the semi-finals today after defeating Torres.
Damming says: "I'm very happy to hear that I'm the first Dutchman to make it this far at the Junior World Championships, I didn't know that!"
Current achievements of Ukrainian juniors at the World Championship
Ukraine also has something to be proud of, for the first time in the last seven years the Squash Federation of Ukraine was able to delegate juniors to the Under-19 World Squash Championship. We will remind that in 2015, 18-year-old Dmytro Pogrebnyak represented the Ukrainian flag in Eindhoven and was the only player from our country. In 2022, thanks to the support of the hosts of the tournament and the World Squash Federation, we sent two boys to individual competitions - Dmytro Shcherbakov and Radionova Timofia, as well as a representative in the women's category - Velichko Milena.
Unfortunately, Shcherbakov Dmitry lost already in the first round to the Malaysian Jia Rong with a score of 3:2 (11-13, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7). However, Shcherbakov got a really strong opponent, and Dmitry can be proud of the fact that he made him win with only a minimal margin.
After leaving the main draw of the World Championship, Shcherbakov had to fight for 65th place. The next two days for the Ukrainian became quite productive, first Dmytro "put down" the Pakistani squash player Anas Ali Shah with a score of 3:1 (10-12, 12-14, 11-7, 9-11), then the American Rehan Luthra with a score 3:0 (11-7, 11-8, 11-6), and then the Korean Jeong Uk Ryu with a score of 3:1 (11-3 12-10 5-11 11-7).
Shcherbakov's last match in Nancy was a meeting with the representative of France Mattéo Carrouget, after a confrontation with whom he lost to his opponent with a score of 0:3 (11-5, 11-7, 11-2).
Radionova Tymofia's game should still be considered the most successful performance at the World Cup. Thanks to his unforgettable victory in the very first round against the German Fabian Igelbrink, our player got a more winning position right away. We will remind that on the first day of the competition, Timofey played exhausting five games to win with a score of 3:2 (8-11, 12-10, 8-11, 11-8, 11-9).
Next, a series of black and white streaks awaited the athlete, where Timofey sometimes lost the match, then again prevailed over his opponents:
- Timofey Radionov - New Zealand Joe Smythe 0:3 (9-11, 6-11, 7-11)
- Jakub Gogol Poland - Timofey Radionov 1:3 (11-8, 12-14, 3-11, 9-11)
- Timofey Radionov - Australia Luke Eyles 2:3 (10-12, 11-6, 5-11, 11-4, 8-11)
Milena Velichko will compete for the 81st place. After losing the first two matches, the squash player has no choice but to be satisfied with the small ones. Despite the bad start, it is worth washing Milena's fighting spirit and her extreme game at the championship against the 17-year-old player from the Czech Republic Sofie Hausknotzová. With a year older opponent and also with a higher rating, Velichko managed in 27 minutes - 3:1 (11-4, 8-11, 11-5, 11-8).
Ahead of us is the final game of Milena Velichko against the Romanian Andreea Ghiorghisor. The broadcast will take place on our Instagram channel, the game starts at 16:40 (Kyiv time).
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