Indian challenge in the World Junior Squash Championships came to an end as Mahesh Mangaonkar and Anaka Alankamony lost their respective quarter-final matches to Egyptian rivals in the men's and women's competition at Doha.
Mangaonkar went down to second seed Mohamed Abouelghar 10-12, 8-11, 11-9, 12-10, 12-10 in a marathon battle that lasted 90 minutes while Alankamony lost to higher-ranked Yathreb Adel 4-11, 8-11, 11-5, 9-11 in 37 minutes at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex.
The 18-year-old from Cairo, Abouelghar, recovered from two games down and then saved match balls in both fourth and fifth games before beating the 5-8th seed Mangaonkar in a match widely felt to be the best of the championships so far.
"I'm lucky I won, I'm so lucky tonight. Mahesh played superb squash today," the relieved Egyptian said.
Meanwhile, Alankamony started slowly and only picked up her game towards the tail end of the second game. Yathreb was on fire in the first two games, dispatching volley drop shots with ease.
In the third, the Indian found the authority to move up in the court and played some lethal volley drop shots of her own to bounce back into contention.
The fourth game was nail biting as the two eventually levelled at 9-all before Yathreb stepped up the pace to take two points on the trot to seal the match.
