Indian Junior Sqaush Open receives record 503 entries

The Indian Junior Squash Open for to be held here from Aug 23 to 27 at the Indian Squash Academy has received a record 503 entries compared to last editions 320.
According to a press release by Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI), the Rs 5 lakh prize money tournament will witness competitions in 10 age categories for boys and girls -- U-11, U-13, U-15, U-17 and U-19.
In all there are 343 entries in the boys section while 160 in the girls category.
Participants would receive WSF ranking points (U-19), ASF points (all categories) and SRFI ranking points.
Overseas response has come in from Malaysia, Singapore, USA, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Nepal and Bahrain.

Matches will be held on eight courts, four of them have been totally re-done in view of the World University Games squash event which is to be held soon after this event.

In effect, the Indian Junior Open is a curtain raiser for the world event which came to India for the first time.
For India, much interest will centre around Kush Kumar who became the first male Indian player to earn a bronze medal at the World junior championship at Namibia. He is the top seed in the U-19 category and was the winner last year.
Other defending champions:

Boys: U-17: Velavan Senthilkumar (IND), U-15: Krish Kapur (IND), U-13: Mohd Hafiz Zhafri (MAL), U-11: Navaneeth Prabhu (IND).
Girls: U-19: Lakshya Ragavendran (IND); U-17: Ho Kawing (Hong Kong); U-15: Cheng Ng Ching (Hong Kong); U-13: Smitha Sivakumar (IND); U-11: Jessica Keng Jia Hui (MAL).