Junior Archives - Norcal Squash

Squash Zone hosted the 2nd edition of the annual Squash Zone Silver on March 29-31st. With a entry list of over 80 and plenty local and out of state interest, juniors converged on the facility in Redwood City for a fun yet competitve weekend of squash supported by NorCal Squash.
BU11: This age group definitely won the hearts of all the spectators, with rackets nearly as tall as themselves 11 kids battled it out for the prize. Gautham Suresh prevailed in a very closely fought 5 game match on the glass court. Suresh held a off a spirited defense from Arjya Saha who came back to level the match from 2 games down but couldn’t quite edge it in the 5th game. A match played with great sportsmanship and skill, truly a joy to watch.
BU13: Two round robins culminated in Abhinav Athreya facing off against Faizaan Mustafa in the final on Sunday morning. Again, as in the Bu11 final, Abinav went 2 games up in the first two games only to see his lead shattered as Faizaan made his way back to a 2-2 tie. In the 5th game Abhinav’s lower error count was the difference on the day and he came away with the Bu13 title.
BU15: Going to form with yet another closely contested final Nachiket Desai of Cupertino had a relatively easy run to the finals only dropping 1 game on the way. Likewise, Nikhil Prasad of Fremont reached the final smoothly winning all his matches 3-0. Prasad, playing in 2 divisions this weekend, did not let tiredness get the better of him and game back from a 2 game to 1 deficit to win 11-9 in the 5th game.
BU17: In the most populated draw of the event 24 players were whittled down to 2 players with number 1 seed Abhimanyu Gupta taking the spoils on the final match of the event. His closest match having been in the semi-finals against Bharadwaj Sasikumar where he won 3-1. In the other half of the draw Vaibhav Turaga of El Dorado Hills pulled out a suprise victory over no. 2 seed Bharadwaj’s brother Bhavesha but couldn’t quite produce the same upset losing out in 3 close games to Gupta.
Gu13: This was a combined division with Gu11 players alongside their older counterparts. Isha Gupta came out victorious with a clean record in the Round Robing winning all 3 of her matches. Eva Chow came in 2nd with her only loss coming against the eventual winner.
Gu17: This was a combined division with Gu15; the quality of play was extremely high with Dina Morsy of Danville and Ashna Tumuluri of Redwood City battling it out in the final. In a closely fought match with an 18-16 scoreline in the 3rd Dina took the trophy coming from a game down to secure a 3-1 win.
Gu19: The two round robins were won by Ellyn Xu and Fatima Abdelrahman who won all their respective matches. In a very close final where all games went down to the wire Fatima was able to nudge out a win in the 4th game tie-break to take the Squash Zone Silver title. Thank you to all those who supported this event (NorCal Squash and the team at Squash Zone). Well done to all competitors involved, it was a great weekend of high quality squash
matches, sportsmanship and camaraderie.

On February 23rd, The Oakwood Squash Academy held their Winter Bronze Tournament, the first of 2019. Participants traveled from all over the Bay Area, and even as far as New York City for the event, with an especially strong local presence from SquashDrive, the East Bay’s urban squash program, Oakwood Athletic Club and ClubSport San Ramon. For many participants, this was their first squash tournament. The tournament was hosted by Torey Broderson, director and founder of the Oakwood Squash Academy junior program.

In the Girls division, over half the draw was participating in their first US Squash sanctioned event. Placing 2nd in the division and the highest for the SquashDrive team was Melanie Soberanis of Richmond, CA. Placing in 1st place was Olivia Li from the Oakwood program, who also earned her first squash trophy. Also participating were Aarushi Kodipyaka, Zoeya Ghauri and Alondra Ignacio who were all playing in their first squash tournament. The girls made a strong showing and were all competitive.

Our Boys Under 13 division was heavily contested. Previous winner Alex Jayaratne saw new competition from San Francisco and the South Bay, and lost in the Quarterfinals to Mathew Waller of San Francisco. Mathew was then defeated in a brutal 5 game match vs. Abhinav Doma of Fremont. The finals found Doma facing Gautham Suresh, a talented 8 year old from the South Bay. Gautham won convincingly, managing to drop only 1 game the entire tournament. At only 8, Gautham has beautifully developed form and has a very bright future.

The Boys Under 15 division was a 5 person round robin, of whom Christian Wee of San Francisco, and Kyle Wu from ClubSport San Ramon each had several convincing victories. Christian, nearly guaranteed the 1st place trophy after sweeping his other matches 3-0, found himself in a tough battle down 2-1 against the underdog, Raiyan Sattar. Christian dug deep and managed to squeak out a 5 game victory, completing his undefeated 4-0 run. Kyle Wu earned 2nd place thanks to his powerful serves and deep game.

A big thanks to NorCal Squash for sponsoring the event, and designer Chase Hawes for the fabulous shirt designs.