India’s wonderkid Anahat Singh settled for a silver medal at the girls’ U-17 British Junior Open squash 2024 held at the University of Birmingham. The Asian Games medalist went down to Egyptian second seed Nadien Elhammamy 11-7, 11-13, 10-12, 11-5, 9-11, in a match that lasted 68 minutes.
Despite winning the first game 11-7, Anahat could not keep the pressure up, as Elhammamy fought back in the match in the next two games, 13-11 & 12-10. Thereafter, the Delhi girl took the fourth game at 11-5, but that was not enough on the day. In the end, she did play splendidly throughout the tournament, but could not replicate her efforts in the final.
On the other hand, Aryaveer Dewan, the reigning US Junior Open boys’ under-15 champion, finished as the second runners-up, in the tournament, as he lost to Egyptian top seed Philopater Saleh 3-1 in the semifinals. Earlier, Aadya Budhia lost 2-3 to top-seeded American Vivienne Sze in the under-13 girls’ quarterfinals.
