Top seeds progress in KFC Senior Squash Championship

The 2019 KFC Senior National Squash Championships continued on Thursday evening at the Georgetown Club Squash Courts with play in the Men’s Open, Women’s Open and Men’s Over-50 categories.

The four semi-finalists in the Ladies Open were decided as all of the top seeded players won in straight sets. The most competitive of the quarter-finals was the match between national Under-17 and 19 Junior champion Abosaide Cadogan and her former junior teammate Sarah Lewis.

The first two games were really close with Abosaide eventually winning the match 11-8, 11-9, 11-5. Number one seed Ashley Khalil easily disposed of Lydia Fraser 11-2, 11-1, 11-3, while her Pan Am Games teammate and number two seed Taylor Fernandes had a slightly tougher time, but defeated Madison Fernandes 11-2, 11-8, 11-2.

In the last quarter-final match, former junior player Gabby Fraser outplayed national Under-15 junior champion Kirsten Gomes 11-5, 11-5, 11-0.

In the Men’s Open Round of 16, there were no upsets as all of the seeded players progressed to the quarter-finals.

Number two seed and former national champion Nyron Joseph defeated Samuel Ince-Carvalhal 11-4, 11-6, 11-7, while the third and fourth seeds, former national champion Regan Pollard and current national Junior Under-17 and 19 champion Shomari Wiltshire advanced easily.

Regan defeated national junior Under-15 champion Michael Alphonso 11-2, 11-4, 11-6, while Shomari beat Adam Alves 11-3, 11-3, 11-5. Former national junior player Damien Da Silva beat Ian Mekdeci 11-8, 11-3, 11-7, while former national player Robert Fernandes disposed of national Junior Under-13 champion Mohyryan Baksh 11-7, 11-6, 11-2.

Nicholas Narain and Javed Ali had an intense battle with the second game proving to be the crucial game in the match. Nicholas easily won the first game 11-3, but had to pull out all the stops before eventually winning the second game 13-11.

Nicholas then won the third game 11-6. In the final match played, Peter Michael De Groot used all of his experience to withstand the challenge of promising junior player Nicholas Verwey. Peter Michael easily won the first game 11-2, but Nicholas came out with a different game plan in the second game and won 11-5.

The third game was crucial, but Peter Michael prevailed with a 12-10 win. Peter Michael would finally close out the match with an 11-6 fourth game win. Top seeded Jason Ray Khalil did not have to break a sweat as his opponent Josh Abdool gave him a walkover.

There were two matches in the Veterans Over-50. Joe Mekdeci defeated Tony Farnum 11-2, 11-7, 11-7, while Garfield Wiltshire beat Medhi Ramdhani 11-3, 11-4, 11-8.

Play continues on Friday evening from 17:30h with two more Over-50 Men’s matches, one Men’s Over-40 match, Men’s Open quarter-finals and Plate matches in both the Men’s and Women’s Open.