Win over Egypt the highlight of Houston tournament
Houston, Texas, USA: After sending shockwaves through the world squash fraternity by defeating Egypt, the South African junior men’s team improved on their 15th seeding by seven places to finish eighth in the World Junior Team Championships in Houston, Texas, this week.
Although losing to the United States in the quarterfinals, SA team coach Jimmy Schlebusch said they could hold their heads up in pride after receiving the sportsmanship award at the final prize-giving.
It was the best performance by an SA junior team at the world event.
In the encounter with Egypt, South Africa went into the tie knowing that they would only need to win one match to secure a shock result. This was due to the top seeds’ team sheet not being submitted to the tournament organisers in time, meaning that the default lineup of Egypt’s first three players had to be played.
This put first string Mohamad Zakaria in the lineup. Egypt opted to default Zakaria’s match, possibly feeling they could still win the match, and promoted Omar Azzam to first string and Marwan Assal to second string.
After being severely tested in spells by Connor Earl, Assal was able to level the tie for Egypt with an 11-5 12-10 11-4 result in the first match.
This meant that the match between South Africa’s Luhann Groenewald and Egypt’s Omar Azzam would be winner-takes-all.
Azzam gave his side the lead with a hard-fought 12-10 win in the opener, before being pegged back 11-7 in game two.
The 18-year-old regained the lead once more with another tiebreak win but was unable to close out, with Groenewald, whose unorthodox two-handed technique and relentless running caused Azzam endless problems, taking the decider into a fifth game with an 11-8 victory.
After the brutal action of the opening games, the decisive clash was a stop-start affair. To the delight of the South African bench, it was Groenewald who was best able to deal with the intense pressure, clinching the match with a stroke decision, prompting wild celebrations from his teammates.
Schlebusch was full of praise for Groenewald’s attitude in a tough situation.
“He played so well; he worked hard and stuck to his game,” the SA coach said. “He changed things, and it was awesome the way he fought so hard.”
Groenewald was over the moon with his result.
“To pull through for my country is unbelievable and so was the support. I think my team supporting me was the one thing that got me through that match.”
Schlebusch added that the tournament had been a step in the right direction for the players.
“The guys gained so much experience and gained in confidence, realising that they are just as good or even more capable as the top players in the world.
“As a team they fully deserved the sportsmanship award. They conducted themself with great honour and court conduct in all their matches and stood out from the rest.
“This was especially so in the match against Egypt and the tournament organiser said to me it was the easiest choice they had to make in giving the sportsmanship award to team SA.”
Schlebusch said Groenewald had enjoyed an outstanding tournament.
“Not only did he excel in the Egypt match, but pushed the Korean player, Joo Young Na, to the maximum in the individual event,” he said.
“To put it in perspective, Na caused many upsets, beating last year’s individual champion (Hamza Khan) en route to this year’s individual final.
“Connor Earl also pushed the Indian individual semi-finalist (Shaurya Bawa) hard, managing to get a game off him, and lost 3-1 to a Pakistani opponent who ended in the 5-8 category.
“I think they are now motivated more than ever, realising they can compete with the cream of the crop.
“Some of them just want to start training immediately once they get back to SA.”
The South African junior women’s team had a tough tournament but were able to finish on a positive note when they defeated Chinese Taipei 3-0 in their final fixture to end in 16th place.
