2022 Queensland Junior Squash Championships wrap up

The 2022 Queensland Junior Squash Championships Individual competition came to a close at Nerang Squash and Fitness on Wednesday. 

After three action-packed days, various finals played out across the boys and girls U9 to U21 age groups. 

One of the top matches of the day came courtesy of the Girls U15 final with Victorian Joanne Joseph beating Queensland’s Sarbani Maitra in a five-game thriller. 

With the first two games going toe-to-toe Joseph came out on top to give herself a 2-0 lead. However, much like her quarterfinal on Tuesday in the Girls U17 draw, her opponent fought back strongly as Maitra forced a fifth game to decide the age champion. 

The Queenslander was on the front foot, carrying momentum from her previous game but Joseph stayed on her tail and managed to take the lead at 10-9. While Maitra was able to level it at 10-10, Joseph proved too strong, picking up her second age title in two weeks with a 3-2 win.

Later in the day, Maitra played in her second final as she came up against Lijana Sultana in the Girls U17.  

At 1-1, it was the third game that saw the match take a turn as Maitra got herself out to a 7-3 lead. From there, Sultana fought back with five consecutive points with the game eventually going to 10-10 before Maitra saw out the game to give her a 2-1 lead.

The fourth game was a much closer affair with Sultana leading at 9-8 but Maitra made three consecutive points to seal a 3-1 victory.

Meanwhile, brothers Joel and Joshua Raj took home three titles between them across the Boys U13, U15 and U17 events. 

Joel’s victory in the U15’s event was a close battle with Liam Fascetti putting up quite the fight until the end. Their third match was almost twice as long as their first two as Joel reached 9-6 before Fascetti would go on to level it at 10-10.

In the end, Joel would finish the match with two points to take a 3-0 win.

In other results, young Papua New Guinea player Ethan Kriebisch won the Boys U9 after topping the round-robin group. While Chloe Baxter took the title in the Girls U9 event.

Baxter was also in the Girls U11 final against Riyo Kawabata, but the latter of the pair proved too strong, having not dropped a game and won the final 3-0. 

The Boys U11 final saw Kai Dumbleton overcome surprise packet Jet Lacquiere, who had beaten the no. 2 and no. 3 seeds earlier in the week, to win 3-0.  

Over in the Girls U13, Tina Ma picked up her second age title in a matter of weeks after beating Lilly Wilson 3-1 in a close fought final.

Australian Junior Open U19 Girls champion Madison Lyon took out the state age title with 3-1 victory over Kurstyn Mather. 

Prior to the Girls U19 Final, Mather had taken out the Girls U21 after outlasting Sophie Fadaely 3-2 in a tough last round-robin match. Meanwhile, Josh Fogan took the Boys U21 event, beating the no.1 seed Clay Canty 3-0.

The Queensland Junior Championships will be back underway on Friday 1 July for the team event. 

For the full results, click here.

FULL LIST OF 2022 QUEENSLAND JUNIOR CHAMPIONS
U9 Boys: Ethan Kriebisch
U9 Girls: Chloe Baxter 
U11 Boys: Kai Dumbleton
U11 Girls: Riyo Kawabata
U13 Boys: Joel Roshan Raj
U13 Girls: Tina Ma 
U15 Boys: Joel Roshan Raj
U15 Girls: Joanne Joseph
U17 Boys: Joshua Rahul Raj
U17 Girls: Sarbani Maitra
U19 Boys: Brendan MacDonald
U19 Girls: Madison Lyon
U21 Boys: Josh Forgan
U21 Girls: Kurstyn Mather