With the help of some great fundraising on the part of the Edmonton Squash Club extended family, Mohammed Elserafy will be competing in the British Junior Open in the U11 category from January 2nd-6th. The British Junior Open is considered the most prestigious Junior tournament in the world, with all participants having to be ranked in the top 4 in their country for their age group to qualify as a non-UK national.
To our knowledge, he is the first Edmontonian to participate in the BJO since the Matt Giuffre prowled the courts on his way to a successful PSA pro career (Update – it turns out that Joel Rothwell played in the BJO in 2006 – sorry about that Brooke! Anyone else that we’ve forgotten about out there?).
Momo was featured in an interview with the local Global affiliate.
Momo’s first match will be as a 17/32 seed against Tayo Janum Yahaya of England at 12:10 PM England time on January 2nd.
Update January 2nd
Momo is off to a great start with an 11-1, 11-3, 11-4 first round victory against Tayo Yahaya of England. The round will get much tougher soon though, with a showdown against Seif Eldeen Dahshan of Egypt who is a 3/4 seed. The game is scheduled to start at 11:20 Mountain Time (18:20 in England).
Round of 32 update
Momo put up a great fight with 2 game balls in the first game, but ended up falling in the 2nd round 13-11, 11-5, 11-9 against Seif Dahshan who is currently the 2nd ranked player in Egypt for U11.
Momo will still have lots of play left though, playing for a final ranking in the 17-32 bracket.
Day 2 and Day 3 Update (Jan 3/4)
Day 2 was the first ranking day for the 17/32 bracket. Momo fought hard, falling just short losing in 5 games against Jake Johnston, a 9/16 seed from England 4-11, 11-5, 11-8, 13-15, 11-9. This shuffles Momo into the 25/32 ranking consolation.
Day 3, marked a return to the winner’s circle for Momo with a well deserved victory over Rio Swasey 8-11, 11-6, 11-9, 12-10. The match was partially live streamed on Facebook (fast-forward to after the 44 minute mark in the video).
Momo still has two games remaining: Saturday at 11:30 AM (4:30 AM Mountain Time) and Sunday at 10 AM (3 AM Mountain Time).
The PSA World Tour is broadcasting the show court on their Facebook Page live which can be viewed for free: https://www.facebook.com/PSAworldtour/
Keep an eye on this page for updates via Ibrahim.
