After a hectic Day 3 yesterday (Monday) at the 2014 U.S. Junior Squash Open which is being held at the Yale University squash complex in New Haven, Connecticut when the three remaining Barbadian players played almost the entire day unbeaten there has been more success today (Tuesday) on Day 4 as Meagan Best has placed third in the GU-13 event and Khamal Cumberbatch has won the BU-13 Consolation Plate 2 competition with Josiah Griffith waiting to take the court in the final of the BU-15 Consolation draw.
In the GU-13 main draw, which had attracted 57 entries from across the globe, Meagan Best, the current Barbados and Caribbean GU-13 champion came back from 0-2 down in her epic quarter-final match yesterday versus the #5 seed Avni Arnand (USA) to win in five pulsating games 8-11, 4-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-5. Best then lost to the same player who beat her in the Canadian Open in her semi-final match yesterday evening, going down to the #2 seed Marina Stephanoni (USA) 5-11, 9-11, 3-11. (Stephanoni went on to defeat the #1 seed Nouran Youssef in the final in five games earlier today). Undeterred by her semi-final setback yesterday, however, Meagan took to the Yale #7 court this morning full of confidence and won again in straight games against yet another seeded player, this time the #3 seed Lucia Bicknell (CAN) 11-7, 15-13, 11-8 in a tense contest. This third place finish by Meagan is one of the best finishes by any Barbadian junior girl at a major international squash competition and is the best showing by any Barbadian at the US Junior Open since Gavin Cumberbatch placed second in the BU-16 age group way back in 1998!
Barbados also had two representatives in the boy’s divisions competing on the last day with the Barbados and Caribbean BU-13 champion, Khamal Cumberbatch, who was seeded here at #9/16, defeating David Costales from Ecuador 3-1 in the quarter-finals of the second consolation draw on Monday afternoon. Cumberbatch then beat Canadian Ali Shalaby 3-2 in the semi-finals last night and today (Tuesday) defeated Yahya Megahed (EGY) 11-3, 4-11, 10-12, 15-13, 11-8 in a tense and testy affair to win the second consolation plate final.
In the BU-15 age group Josiah Shemane Griffith has defeated all comers in the first consolation draw thus far. He won twice on Monday 3-0 against Tyler Mackesy (USA) and then Zach Bradlow (USA) respectively to reach today’s semi-finals. Griffith then dispatched Andres Lopez (ESA) earlier this morning 3-1 in the semi-final 11-4, 11-9, 5-11, 12-10 and is now waiting to play in the consolation plate final against Canadian James Flynn.
Michael Best, the Barbados Junior Team Manager this year was overjoyed with the performance of the Barbadian players on this tour: “This was a fantastic four days of competition for these kids in particular and for Barbadian junior squash in general. We have now firmly placed ourselves on the map in two successive major world events in squash. All the juniors have been training hard this year so kudos must be extended to our National Junior coach, Rhett Cumberbatch, who has been with us on this tour every step of the way and who is understandably over the moon with delight right now.”
There were 906 juniors who entered this year in the US Junior Open in eight age group categories (U-13, U-15, U-17, and U-19) for both boys and girls. The tournament commenced on December 20th and ended today December 23rd. The inset photo shows a determined Meagan Best (left side) in action in her successful quarter-final match yesterday evening. The junior squad returns home tomorrow via Miami.
The US Junior Open draws can be found on the US Squash website at: www.ussquash.com
