KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's challenge in the individual competition at the World Junior Squash Championships in Nancy, France, fizzled out today after Aira Azman fell in the quarter-finals.
Aira, who was the last Malaysian left in the event, found the going tough as she went down 11-7, 11-6, 11-8 to Egypt's Salma Eltayeb.
The 17-year-old started brightly in all three games but spluttered when it mattered most against her Egyptian opponent who was impervious to pressure.
It was a disappointing outcome for Aira who was tipped to challenge for the world junior title and had beaten Salma in the final of the Tuanku Muhriz Trophy in July.
Aira's defeat means Malaysia's wait for another women's world junior champion will go on. Eight-time world champion Nicol David was the last Malaysian to win the title in 2001.
"We have to give Salma credit because she really played well today," admitted national assistant head coach Andrew Cross.
"Generally I thought Aira played fairly well but she tailed off during the middle of each game and that proved costly.
"But she's young and she can still compete in the world juniors next year, so this is a lesson for her to take home going forward."
While the Malaysian girls' campaign is over, the boys still have something to fight for as they prepare for the team event which gets underway on Tuesday. The team comprise C. Ameeshenraj, Joachim Chuah, Andrik Lim and Harith Danial.
"They had some time away from the court, so it's really down to us to make the best of the time available to prepare for the team event," said Cross.
"In 2014, the boys' team reached the semi-finals even though their individual results weren't great. So hopefully this will be something to get this year's team fired up when the competition gets underway."
