Ashley deGroot completed a resounding win against her older brother Raphael deGroot on night two of the Guyana Squash Association’s (GSA) Bounty Farm Mash Handicap tournament last night at the Georgetown Club’s Squash Facility.
Ashley managed to win the best-of-three format 15/12, 10/15, 15/11 for her second straight win of the tournament. Raphael deGroot was hampered by a -10 handicap but told Stabroek Sports that his biggest disadvantage was his fitness.
Following the game, Raphael a former Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) hockey player said that his sister’s superior fitness proved to be lethal in the third and final game. Raphael closed the deficit in the first game, but after winning 22 points, his sister closed him out to take a 1-0 lead.
After equalizing in the second with a clinical 10-15 win, a come-from- behind victory again in the third proved to be too much for Raphael to endure.
Raphael commended his sister on a well-deserved hard fought win, stating that he felt his sister always elevates her games when playing against him as she has yearned to beat him for quite some time.
Ashley advanced to the third round where she is scheduled to take on Jason Ray Khalil who dispatched Jonathon Antczak in straight games in spite of his -20 handicap. In addition to Khalil’s -20 handicap, Antczak also possessed a +6 advantage, but none of those factors seemed to matter last night. Khalil raced to an impressive 15/10 victory in the first game. If that was not impressive enough, Khalil won 33 consecutive points in the second game conceding only one point to Antczak.
The other Khalil sibling, Ashley Khalil pulled off a shocking come-from-behind win against Caribbean Under 19 champion Mary Fung-A-Fat. Khalil, who had been away from the sport for some while, looked out of it early in the match and lost the first game 15/7.
Khalil began hitting the tin a lot in the second game before shouting on herself to find form. Somehow Khalil managed to channel her anger and combine it with determination and power to produce lethal winners. The former junior sportswoman of the year came from trailing 5/9 to win the second game ahead of Khalil 15/13. Khalil continued to unleash her power in the third and final game to run away with a 15/5 victory.
Nyron Joseph overcame his -10 handicap to make light work of Lloyd Fung-A-Fat (+6) in straight games 15/10, 15/12. Steven Xavier (-12) escaped the seemingly imminent defeated s against care against Ingram Edwards (+4).
The tournament continues today from 6:30pm with action beginning to heat up in the plate category. Two of the eliminated players hoping to stay alive in the plate round are father and daughter David and Taylor Fernandes who are scheduled to take on each other this evening.
Results:-
Nyron Joseph (-10) defeated Lloyd Fung-A-Fat (+6) [15/10, 15/12]
Jason Ray Khalil (-20) defeated Jonathon Antczak (+6) [15/10, 15/7]
Ashley degroot (0) defeated Raphael deGroot (-10) [15/10, 10/15, 15/11]
Ashley Khalil (-5) defeated Mary Fung-A-Fat(-3) [7/15, 15/13, 15/5]
Steven Xavier (-12) defeated Ingram Edwards [15/10, 16/14, 15/11]
Nicholas Narain defeated David Fernandes [15/13, 15/4, 15/13]
Joven Benn defeated Antonio Joseph [4/15, 15/13, 18/16]
Benjamin Mekdeci defeated Hapoei Yang [16/14, 11/15, 16/14]
