Only three of the eight No.1 seeds – England’s Aditi Rao (GU15) and Ireland duo Zoe Yeomans (GU17) and Christian Dromgoole (BU17) – have safely negotiated their way through to Sunday finals at the IACT Irish Junior Open following two days of rip-roaring action in Dublin.
The BU19 final will feature Brazil’s Owen Hendricks [9/16] against England’s Ronnie Hickling [3/4]. Hendricks lit up the Saturday action with his 3-1 quarter-final win over Marc Altarriba, the No.1 from Spain.
He then picked off another Spanish opponent, Alberto Mateo [3/4], with a 3-0 semi-final success to book a decider versus Hickling, who took out Franciszek Michniewicz, the No.2 from Poland, 3-0 in his semi.
In contrast, the BU17 panned out to seeding as Ireland’s Christian Dromgoole [1] won through to a final on his home court in Sutton against Scotland’s Murdo Mackenzie [2].
Both these players represented their respective countries at U19s at the World Squash Junior Championships earlier this year in Cairo, as did U19 finalists Hendricks and Hickling.
BU15 No.1 Rafael Rodriguez Segovia, the Spaniard who was last year’s BU13 title winner in Dublin, lost 1-3 in his quarter-final against Scotland’s Thomas Myers [9/16].
The Scot then beat another Spanish player, Itzel Reguero Garcia [3/4] 3-0 in the semi-finals to secure a place in the final against Marcelino Cronin [5/8], the Cairo-based Irishman.
A winner at the Spanish Junior Open in August, Cronin took out the No.2 seed, fellow Irishman Michael Lai of Mount Pleasant, 3-0 in the semi-finals.
In the BU13, Ireland’s Harry Knox, the No.1 seed from the Celtic club, was pipped 2-3 in a five-game semi-final classic with Zane Harms, the 3/4 seed from Switzerland. Knox had jumped two games up but was then reeled in, resulting in Harms booking his ticket to play another Celtic club player, Jamie Morrissey [9/16], in the final.
It was Ireland’s Eoin O’Brien [5/8], playing at his local Sutton club, who opened up the bottom half of the draw with a 3-0 quarter-final win over Ailong Chen, the No.2 Irish player from Mount Pleasant. O’Brien, though, couldn’t repeat those heroics in a semi-final that Morrissey clinched 3-0.
Ireland will have representatives in three of the four girls’ finals, including the American-based Ella Erickson who won her way through to the GU19 decider despite her 9/12 seeding.
Another player who played at the World Squash Championships four months ago, her Group A run included wins over two Irish teammates in Cairo, Ella Walsh [5/8] and Riley Slade [1], and another success over Sara Sabry [5/8], the recent winner of the Connacht Senior Open.
She will now face Damila Medina [5/8] in the final. The Spaniard lost just a single game in her progress to the decider, beating Irish, Scottish, Dutch and Macau opposition.
Yeomans, another member of the Ireland team in Egypt, will play in the GU17 final against Spain’s Siena Hall Rogers [2] after they each posted four group wins.
The GU15 final, meanwhile, will be an all-overseas affair after the top seeds, England’s Aditi Rao [1] and Spain’s Andrea Gonzalez [2], won through.
Rao clinched her place with a win over Emillie LeBlond [3/4] of France in a five-game semi-final thriller that went right to the wire before the English player clinched the fifth 11-9.
In contrast, an all-Irish pairing will feature in the GU13 final with Limerick’s Ruby Carroll [3/4] facing Celtic’s Daisy Morrissey [2].
Top seed Raghad Aboelela, the Irish player from Mount Pleasant, came unstuck in her group, losing 1-3 to Caoimhe English [5/8].
Aside from the eight showpiece finals scheduled for Sutton from 11:30am through to 3pm, there are multiple minor placing finals to be decided with play getting underway at 9am.
SUNDAY’S FINALS SCHEDULE
11:30am – BU19: Brazil’s Owen Hendricks [9/16] v England’s Ronnie Hickling [3/4]
12pm – GU13: Ireland’s Ruby Carroll [3/4] v Ireland’s Daisy Morrissey [2]
12:30pm – BU13: Switzerland’s Zane Harms [3/4] v Ireland’s Jamie Morrissey [9/16]
1pm – GU19: Ireland’s Ella Erickson [9/12] v Spain’s Damila Medina [5/8]
1:30pm – GU15: England’s Aditi Rao [1] v Spain’s Andrea Gonzalez [2]
2pm – BU15: Scotland’s Thomas Myers [9/16] v Ireland’s Marcelino Cronin [5/8]
2:30pm – GU17: Ireland’s Zoe Yeomans [1] v Spain’s Siena Hall Rogers [2]
3pm – BU17: Ireland’s Christian Dromgoole [1] v Scotland’s Murdo Mackenzie [2]
