Aspire Academy's Team Achieved Great Results at Luxembourg Junior Squash Open

Luxembourg City, April 09 (QNA) - Aspire Academy's squash team showed strong performances at the "Luxembourg Junior Open" including Waleed Zaman's victory in the U-17 category and Salem Al Malki's third place in U-15s. As a regular junior tour event, this year's Luxembourg Junior Open saw an increase in participation from players across Europe. With the tournament looking to gain Grand Prix status on the calendar next season this was a well-run event, providing excellent competition for the six Aspire players competing. The highlight of the weekend came from Grade 11 student Waleed Zaman, winning his first European junior event with victory in the U-17 age group. After dominating the opening two games of the final Waleed withstood a comeback from his Belgian opponent Antoine Allard to narrowly take the fourth game and claim the title 11/4, 11/6, 6/11, 15/13. Having been in contention previously in European events is was pleasing to see him finally make the breakthrough. In the Under-15 event grade 8 student Salem Al Malki also performed well to take 3rd place. This included a win over the number 2 seed for the event and was an improved tactical performance overall. With one year remaining in this age group Salem has made considerable improvement since the start of this season. Ibrahim Al Darwish did well to qualify for the main draw of the Under-17 event and beat the number 7 seed before being knocked out by his team mate Waleed Zaman. Unfortunately, a hamstring strain forced him to withdraw from his final 2 matches to avoid further injury. In the Under-19 event Ahmad Al Meraikhi took 6th place as did Yousef Al Kubaisi in the Under 15 category, Grade 7 student Abdulrahman Ajineh managed to qualify for the U-13 age category and finished in 14th place. (QNA)