Andrea all warmed-up for British Juniors challenge

PETALING JAYA: Sixteen-year-old squash player Andrea Lee has enjoyed a productive 2014.

The Kuala Lumpur lass won the Asian Junior Championship Under-17 title last June and bagged the Under-19 title in the KL Junior Open in style last month beating top seed Choi Uen Shan of Hong Kong.

Earlier this week, the left-handed Andrea wrapped up the year by clinching the Under-17 title at the Pontefract Junior Open in West Yorkshire.

And that has given Andrea a spring in her step as she tackles the British Junior Open which started on Friday in Sheffield.

“Winning at Pontefract is definitely a good warm up because the British Juniors is going to be a lot tougher,” said Andrea, who will be making her fourth appearance.

“It’s not going to be easy taking on the English or Egyptian girls because of the way they play and their size.

“Furthermore I have been given a pretty low seeding. I’ll probably meet a fifth-eighth seed in the third round before running into top seed Habiba Mohamed of Egypt.

“But I’ve definitely improved over the past year. I work with coach Andrew (Cross) four times a week and my strokes have improved.

“Even so, to make the quarter-finals, would be a good achievement as this is my last year in the Under-17 category.”

Andrea, who is seeded joint ninth-16th received a first-round bye on Friday. She meets either Fanny Segers of France or local player Libby Corke in the second round.

A win is likely to pit her against fifth-eighth seed Celine Walser of Switzerland in the third round.

Besides Andrea, the other Malaysian girls in the same age-group are S. Sivasangari, Zoe Foo and Nurina Najib.

Sivasangari is the second seed and is favoured to reached the final where she will meet four-time British Junior champion and world No. 23 Habiba.

Meanwhile in Friday's first round action, top Malaysian junior Ng Eain Yow who is gunning a third British Junior title got off to a good start by beating local lad Cameron Ward 11-5, 11-9, 11-8 in the Under-17 category.