India’s Selena Selvakumar put up an impressive show in the junior girls’ Team event to annex the 2017 Egypt Junior and Cadet Open title at Sharm El-Sheikh on Friday. The 17-year-old Chennai girl teamed up with local duo of Riman Hesham and Waad Ibrahim to upset the top seeded Egypt A team 3-2.
She beat Sarah Abousetta 3-1 (11-8, 13-11, 11-13, 11-7) in the opening encounter and Marwa Alhodaby 3-1 (12-10, 4-11, 11-8, 11-9) in the fourth match to set up the victory. Her wins were particularly impressive as Egypt’s Ibrahim and Hesham had lost to the highly rated Marwa Alhodaby and Mariam Alhodaby to hand over the initiative to their opponents.
However, Selvakumar maintained her composure and won the first game 12-10 against Marwa, which went on to shift the momentum in the former’s favour. Ibrahim posted a win over Sarah Abousetta 3-1 (3-11, 11-9, 11-3, 11-6). Selvakumar was equally impressive in the semi-finals, which was against the Egypt-Tunisia team. She overcame Egypt’s Eman Taha 3-1 (11-8, 11-3, 6-11, 11-7) in the second match and Tunisia’s Abir Haj Salah 3-1 (11-5, 12-14, 11-9, 11-6) in what proved to be the decider.
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