U17 Fourth-seed steamrolls to final at Canadian junior championships

CALGARY – Fourth-seed Joshua Sekhar of Toronto produced a big upset in the boys under-17 category on Saturday to advance to the final at the Canadian junior squash championships.

Sekhar defeated second-seed Zachary Leman of Surrey, B.C., 11-9, 11-4, 11-7. In the final, Sekhar will face number-one seed Tyler Olson of Victoria who defeated Tyler Lee of Edmonton in his semifinal.

“I’ve played Zachary, three or four times before and we always have hard matches,” said Sekhar. “My goal was to keep the rallies long and that strategy paid off. It’s really great to beat a higher seed but my goal this week was to be in the final.”

In men’s under-19, the top-two seeds will meet in the final after victories on Saturday. Number-one and defending champion Andrew Schnell of Calgary defeated fourth-seed Tyler Osborne of Kingston, 11-5, 11-8, 11-8 while number-two Nick Sachvie of St. Catharines, Ont., beat third-seed Arjun Gupta of Toronto 11-6, 11-6, 11-4.

In women’s under-19, the final pits Jennifer Pelletier of Richmond Hill, Ont., against Alix Younger of Winnipeg, seeded 1-2 respectively. Pelletier, last year’s under-17 champion, defeated Melina Turk of Winnipeg 11-8, 11-8, 11-4 and Younger beat Kensy Balch of Edmonton 11-5, 11-8, 11-7.

In girls under-17, top-seed Michelle Gemmell of Toronto meets Hollie Naughton of Oakville, Ont., in the final. Gemmell defeated Nicole Bunyan of Victoria in her semi while Naughton eliminated Abbey Foster of North Vancouver.

In the under-15 category, the finalists are Michael Thompson of Vancouver and Jarryd Osborne of Kingston, Ont., for the boys and Alyssa Mehta of Toronto and Chloe Chemtob of Montreal for the girls.

In the under-13 category, the finalists are Carter Robitaille and Ethan Shoihet, both of Toronto, for the boys and Sophie Mehta of Toronto and Sarah Hopton of Mississauga, Ont., for the girls.

All finals are on Sunday at the Glencoe Club.

Full results at: http://www.squash.ca/canadianjuniors/2010/index.htm