Hong Kong Junior 2013: Navaneeth Prabhu wins the Boys’ U-11 title

Navaneeth Prabhu clinched the Boys’ U-11 title at the Hong Kong Junior Open 2013 defeating local favourite Au Lap Man in a close five-set encounter.

Navaneeth lost the first and third game as his opponent played aggressively moving him to all corners. However, the supremely fit Navaneeth picked up all that was thrown at him and wore down his opponent winning his first international title this year (8-11), 11-3, (9-11), 11-8, 11-8.

In the semi-finals, Navneeth beat country mate Neel Joshi 11-5, 11-8, (3-11), 11-9. In the quarterfinals, he defeated Egyptian Eltorgman Salaheldin in similar fashion, coming back from a game down to win the final game in the tie breaker (8-11), 11-8, (9-11), 11-5, 14-12. It was a nail-biting finish, where he had saved two match balls.

Unfortunately there wasn’t much joy for the Indian camp when Mohammad Alsarraj, the Jordanian Squash star and top seed beat Adhitya Raghavan 3-1 (11-8, 13-11, 7-11, 11-9) in the U-15 final. Adhitya, also a trainee from the Indian Squash Academy, battled all odds defeating higher ranked opponents in his quarterfinal and semi-final going down to Alsarraj.