IT’S quite a breakthrough for squash player Ishant Shah as he kept Malaysia’s boys’ challenge alive at the prestigious British Junior Open.
The Penang boy defied the odds to reach the semi-finals by ousting joint third seed Neel Joshi of India 11-8, 5-11, 8-11, 11-5, 11-6 at the University of Birmingham on Saturday.
The 16-year-old had looked down and out after falling behind 2-1 to the smooth moving Indian.
But Ishant, who has never reached the last eight of the British Juniors before, dug deep and showed great composure to prevail.
“When I was 2-1 down, I told myself that I won’t lose this and Neel would have to work hard if he wanted to win,” said Ishant.
Ishant’s progression is certainly a relief for the Malaysian camp who had suffered from several top prospects getting knocked out in the last eight.
The big losses were girls’ Under-15 top seed K. Sehveetrraa who lost a nail-biting five-setter to Egyptian Malak Taha and boys’ Under-11 top seed Jayden Oon who was blown away by Egypt’s Yassin Azouz.
Also falling short was boys’ Under-17 joint fifth seed C. Ameeshenraj, who was outclassed in four games by the lower ranked Noor Zaman of Pakistan.