Only their A game will do for Azman sisters in home tourney

PETALING JAYA: The stage is set for the Azman sisters Aifa and Aira to shine in the CIMB Foundation National Junior Squash Championship from Feb 11-16 at the National Squash Centre in Bukit Jalil.

Aifa and her younger sister Aira will be looking to win the Under-19 and Under-17 titles respectively.

They will be joined by a host of other promising Malaysian juniors in five other age categories for boys and girls - Under-11, Under-13, Under-15, Under-17 and Under-19.

Aifa will be out to make up for her defeats to Jana Shiha of Egypt - twice in the last one month. She lost in the semi-finals in the Indian Squash Tour last week and in the final of the British Junior Open in Birmingham in January.

This year is Aifa’s last year as a junior player and she wants to end it in style by winning her last national junior meet.

The tournament has received an overwhelming response after a whopping 554 players registered to participate and due to the large number of competitors, it will be held in two venues – the Squash Centre at Jalan Duta as well as the National Squash Centre in Bukit Jalil.

The Nicol David Arena at the National Squash Centre in Bukit Jalil will hold the finals of all the categories.

The huge number of participants shows that Malaysia are on the right track when it comes to developing squash players at the grassroots level.

Besides the Azman sisters, the other players to watch out for in the boys’ category are Hafiz Zafri (Under-19), Amir Amirul (Under-17) and Harith Danial (Under-15).

Pleased with the turnout, Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia (SRAM) director Major (Rtd) S. Maniam said: “This is a good time to catch the future stars of Malaysian squash in action.”