GUYANESE Squash aces, Samuel Ince-Carvalhal and Mohryan Baksh, ventured to the Canadian Open earlier this week despite the challenges of new travel restrictions and COVID protocol.

The boys were eager to get some good experience and to see how they would fare against others in their age categories after the effects of the pandemic on the sport.

Both players came out strong and won their first matches. Baksh achieved a clean win of 3-0 against opponent Simmons in the Boys’ U15 category and Ince-Carvalhal in the U19. dropped the first 9-11, but took the next three – 11-4, 11-3, 11-9 – taking them on to the next round.

Baksh met Pallwal later that evening and was out-performed despite his fighting spirit and spectacular cross-courts. His Canadian opponent was at home on the court winning convincingly 11-5, 11-8, 11-6 over Baksh.

Ince-Carvalhal suffered the same fate when he faced the tournament’s number 2 seed in his second-round bout, and, although he gave a stellar performance with good long rallies, amazing retrieval and killer drops, the number two seed, and eventual tournament winner, was clearly in a higher league, defeating Ince-Carvalhal 11-3, 11-4, 11-4.

Both Guyanese were moved into the consolation draw to continue their bid for a seeding place.

On day 2 Baksh reestablished his dominance in his match-up against Lee. Looking sharp on court he battled through the first game for an 11-9 win and then wore Lee down with clean crisp drives and solid cross-courts that turned his opponent and put the ball past him into the back, where he was unable to reach. Securing his spot in 9-16 placement Baksh won 11-3, 11-6, 11-4.

Ince-Carvalhal looked set to do the same against Richter when he pushed a solid performance in the first two games, earning himself an 11-8, 11-8 wins. During the 3rd however, his opponent got the better of him and he conceded 4-11 and 1-11 losses.

With a final push in the 5th following some gruelling rallies, great lengths and superb drops and what seemed to be enough, Ince-Carvalhal got to match ball before Richter evened at 10.

Snatching back an 11-10 lead, Ince-Carvalhal looked to have it, but Richter evened again and then won the match on a stroke call, sending Ince-Carvalhal into the Plate

In Baksh’s third round consolation match, he took an impressive Jain to 5 games. In an outstanding performance Baksh pushed a first close game with the boys going point for point to 10-all, before Baksh took it 12-10. In the second, it was another close call resulting in Baksh losing 9-11 and 6-11 in the third.

However, the determined youngster was not ready to give up on this one and Baksh upped his retrieval stepping. His placement was on point in the fourth as he powered into an 11-7 win, before taking the match with an 11-8 final game to put him in the quarter-finals of the consolation.

Baksh ended his run right down to wire in a 5-setter against a formidable opponent, Singodia, who played an impressive first game taking an 11-4 lead on Baksh. Baksh took it back in the second but paid heavily for his efforts with an 11-2 defeat in the third.

Pushing back, Baksh dominated the fourth moving his opponent around the court, hitting some hard low balls he couldn’t pick up to take an outstanding fourth game 11-/4. As the boys went into the fifth, tension was high for a place in the semis and Baksh took an early lead reaching a 9-5 advantage, but Singodia climbed back point by point in long rallies, both boys playing strong lengths and trying to patiently wait for the other to make unforced errors, to even at 9.

Neither player was giving an inch and at 10-10, the battle was at its peak before Singodia moved to 11-10 and finished it at 12-10.

In the final game for the boys, Ince-Carvalhal faced Hug in the Plate finals. After a point for point start Ince-Carvalhal pulled away to a 7-4 lead before Hug evened back at 7-all and stayed close but Ince-Carvalhal carved out a space for himself by taking the first game 111-9.

Hug took the second with the same score. Ince-Carvalhal secured the third 11-8 and then battening down, Ince-Carvalhal began to move more smoothly and looked clearly on a mission to finish this one in 4.

He bent lower, hit harder, found his targets and executed some perfect drops in his final game of the tournament to take the match with a final game score of 11-7.

The duo played outstanding squash this tournament and represented their country well. They move on to the U.S. on the 16th where they will be joined by teammates Wiltshire, Alphonso and Verwey to gain more experience from the international U.S. Junior Open.