Melville and Fraser highlight first night’s action
THE 2010 Guyana Squash Racquets Association (GSA)/Toucan Industries Inc. Mashramani junior squash tournament served off on Tuesday evening at the Georgetown Club courts with 10 matches, one of which saw Patrick Fraser and Alec Melville entertaining those in attendance.
This is the GSA’s first junior tournament and Fraser and Melville who are two young hopefuls, made quite a case for selection with an exhibition of high quality squash which left them as potential candidates for the national training squad, which will be named at the end of the week.
The two youngsters played like veterans as they entertained the crowd to a knock-down, drag-out five-setter and it was Melville who had the early momentum, playing tight drives on both sides of the court to force his opponent to make several errors.
Melville got out to game ball at 10-9, but then Fraser came back to tie things up at 10-10 and went on to earn a game point of his own before Melville closed it out at 14-12, but a determined Fraser picked up the pace in the second and moved Melville off the T into a more defensive position at the back of the court.
Fraser controlled his opponent for most of the next two games, forcing him to retrieve from all corners of the court, as he won the second and third sets 11-7 and 11-9 respectively, before earning a match ball at 10-9 in the fourth.
But a determined Melville who had a never-say-die attitude, came storming back to take it at 12-10, forcing a fifth set which had some early exchanges that were close, but in the end it just seemed like Fraser wanted it more and he was able to achieve the well earned victory 11-8.
Action in the tournament continued last night at the same venue, from 18:00 h with several exciting match-ups.  
Results from Tuesday night’s action are as follows:
Category A
Deje Dias defeated Ashley Khalil 11-3, 11-5, 7-11, 11-7.
Alexander Arjoon beat Jason Ray Khalil 11-9, 11-4, 11-9.
Oliver Downes triumphed over Nyron Joseph 11-1, 11-7, 11-1.
Category B
Joven Benn got the better of Jason Van Dyk 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 11-3.
Mary Fung-A-Fat whipped Steven Xavier 11-5, 8-11, 11-2, 11-4.
Victoria Arjoon defeated Jonathan Antczak 11-9, 11-7, 11-6.
Category C
Lee Fung-A-Fat upstaged Ricky Rodrigues 11-7, 11-7, 11-6.
Gabrielle Fraser beat Kristina Cheeks 11-8, 11-2, 11-2.
Category D
Patrick Fraser got past Alec Melville 12-14, 11-7, 11-9, 10-12, 11-8.
Ben Mekdeci thrashed Alexander Cheeks 11-4, 11-2, 11-3.