AFTER a hard-fought battle, former national champion Regan Pollard managed to prevail over junior Caribbean champion Nyron Joseph to join Nicolette Fernandes, Alex Arjoon, and Jason Ray Khalil in the semi-finals of the men’s singles, as play in  the Digicel Senior National Squash Championships  continued last night at the courts of the Georgetown Club..

According to a press release from the GSA, it was the longest and closest match of the night as Pollard and Joseph fought it out to make it into yesterday’s semis. Regan won the first games 11-4, 11-6, but went under 9-11 in the third as Joseph began to weigh him down. Not done yet, Regan was able to recover in the break between games and won the fourth game in an easy 11-3.
Meanwhile, playing in both the men’s and women’s division, Guyana’s top-ranked Nicolette Fernandes on Thursday night climbed into the men’s semis, and cleared her way into the women’s finals, expected to go down today.
Fernandes will take on Ashley Khalil, whom she had previously overcame for the title back in 2010. In Friday’s women’s semi-finals match Fernandes took on Ashley DeGroot. Though she was able to hold her own against two-time junior Caribbean champion Victoria Arjoon on Thursday night, DeGroot was no match for the women’s world number 26 on Friday and went down 11-4, 11-5, 11-6.
Over in the men’s quarter-finals, Fernandes was first up on the court against Steven Xavier. An initially competitive Xavier tried to see if he had what it took to take on one of the world’s best, but got tired quickly after working hard to keep the first set close. The first set was up 7-2 in Fernandes’ favour before Xavier clawed his way back to get as close as nine before Nicolette closed out the game 11-9.
Defending men’s singles champion, Arjoon made it into the semis after he turned back the challenge of Raphael De Groot. De  Groot threw out some amazing squash to claim the first set against Arjoon 12-10,  but found it hard to find his footing as Arjoon regrouped and picked up the pace, polishing off the next three sets with identical scores of 11-2.
In the second men’s quarter-final, Jason-Ray took out 2011 Caribbean Boys Under-13 champion Ben Mekdeci, who played very well in the first game but still went under 6-11 to Jason-Ray. Mekdeci was less aggressive in the next two sets and Jason finished off the games 11-2, 11-3.
In the women’s second semifinal, Khalil had a close match against four-time junior Caribbean champion Mary Fung-A-Fat. Khalil won the first two games 11-7 each, before Fung-A-Fat won the third set 12-10. The fourth game could have gone either way but Khalil managed to edge home 12-10.
Friday night also saw competition in plate matches in the men’s and women’s singles.