TOP seed Christopher Buraga of the Philippines hurdled his second-round match on Wednesday in the 29th Asian Junior Individual Squash Championships at the Ambassador City Jomtien Hotel in Pattaya, Thailand.
Buraga, who drew a first-round bye on Tuesday, outclassed Pattapon Panampai of Thailand, 11-1, 11-5, 11-3, to advance against Aditya Chandani of India, who pulled off a 11-7, 8-11, 11-7, 10-12, 11-9 victory over Tin Hang Lee of Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Reyes defeated Pan Yi-An, 11-4, 11-1, 11-2, in the first round but bowed to No. 2 Harith Danial of Malaysia, 6-11, 9-11, 3-11, in the second round.
Danial will be up against Usman Nadeem Butt of Pakistan, who won over Abdulla Khalifa of Qatar, 11-7, 11-3, 11-5.
“Jonathan played well considering this is his first international stint. He had no prior official ranking so he immediately went up against seed No. 2,” said Philippine Squash Academy president Robert Bachmann told The Manila Times on Thursday.
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“I had a post game meeting with Jona. Clearly he was nervous and he admits it. He has the talent and fitness to beat Danial. I told him, ‘you have two options, you either run away from fear or you face it head on.’ He just had too many errors, gave away too many points.”
Bachmann said Reyes, who just turned 16, will join three more junior tournaments this year in Malaysia.
“I will have Jona spar with players that lost already in the under-17 and under-19 through Sunday. That way, his time here will not be wasted,” said Bachmann.
Third seed Low Wa Sern of Malaysia rallied past Khaled Alfarsi of Kuwait, 8-11, 11-4, 11-3, 11-4 to forge a third-round duel with Oh Seo Jin of South Korea, who won over Kosei Toki of Japan, 11-4, 11-6, 11-1.
Also advancing to the third round were Justin Hong-Chen Cheng, Law Arthur Pak Ki and Tsz Shing Tam of Hong Kong, Sel Tay Jun Qian and Kul Hashvind Kugan of Malaysia, Kun Kim and Jooyoung Na of Korea, and Shaurya Bawa, KS Arihant and Sharan Punjabi of India.
Source: https://www.manilatimes.net/2022/06/17/sports/buraga-advances-in-asian-junior-squash/1847625
